I 


.1  GORDON,  ATTORNEY 


A  POPULAR 

HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

FROM  THE 

EARLIEST  PERIOD 


TO  TUB 


$ttwrrijm!iflu  of 


BT 

THOMAS  D'ARCY  MoGEE,  B.C.L 

Corresponding  Member  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

REVISED  AND  CONTINUED  TO  THE  PBBSENT  TIM, 
BT 

D.  P.  CONYNGHAM,  LL.3). 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES, 
VOL.  II. 

NEW  YORK: 
P.  J.  KENEDY, 

PUBLISHER  TO  THE  HOLY  SEE, 

EXCELSIOR  CATHOLIC  PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

5  BARCLAY  STREET. 
1903, 


Annex 

5014281 

H7STORT   OF   IRBLAffD.  465 


BOOK    IX. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION   OP  JAMES  I.  TILL 
THE  DEATH  OF  CROMWELL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

JAMES  I. — FLIGHT  OF  THE  EARLS — CONFISCATION    OF    ULSTEE — 
PENAL    LAWS— PARLIAMENTARY    OPPOSITION. 

JAMES  THE  SIXTH  of  Scotland  was  in  his  87th  year  when  he 
ascended  the  throne  under  the  title  of  "  James  the  First,  King 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland."  His  accession  naturally  excited 
the  most  hopeful  expectations  of  good  government  in  the 
breasts  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  He  was  son  of  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  whom  they  looked  upon  as  a  martyr  to  her  religion, 
and  grandson  of  that  gallant  King  James  who  styled  himself 
"  Defender  of  the  Faith,"  and  "  Dominus  Hibernice"  hi 
introducing  the  first  Jesuits  to  the  Ulster  Princes.  His 
ancestors  had  always  been  in  alliance  with  the  Irish,  and  the 
antiquaries  of  that  nation  loved  to  trace  their  descent  from 
the  Scoto-Irish  chiefs  who  first  colonized  Argyle  and  were  for 
ages  crowned  at  Scone.  He  himself  was  known  to  have 
assisted  the  late  Catholic  struggle  as  effectually,  though  less 
openly  than  the  King  of  Spain,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  had 
employed  Catholic  agents  like  Lord  Home  and  Sir  James 
Lindsay,  to  excite  an  interest  in  his  succession  among  the 
Catholics,  both  in  the  British  Islands  and  on  the  Continent. 

The  first  acts  of  the  new  sovereign  were  calculated  to  con- 
firm the  expectations  of  Catholic  liberty  thus  entertained. 


468  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRKLAXD. 

He  was  anxious  to  make  an  immediate  and  lasting  peace  with 
Spain  ;  refused  to  receive  a  special  embassy  from  the  Hollan- 
ders ;  his  ambassador  at  Paris  was  known  to  be  on  terms  of 
intimacy  with  the  Pope's  Nnncio,  and  although  personally  he 
assumed  the  tone  of  an  Anglican  Churchman,  on  crossing  the 
border  he  had  invited  leading  Catholics  to  his  Court,  and  con- 
ferred the  honor  of  Knighthood  on  some  of  their  number. 
The  imprudent  demonstrations  in  the  Irish  towns  were  easily 
quieted,  and  no  immediate  notice  was  taken  of  their  leaders 
In  May,  1603,  Mountjoy,  on  whom  James  had  conferred  the 
higher  rank  of  Lord  Lieutenant,  leaving  Carew  as  Lord  Deputy, 
proceeded  to  England,  accompained  by  O'Neil,  Roderick 
O'Donnell,  Maguire,  and  other  Irish  gentlemen.  The  veteran 
Tyrone,  now  past  threescore,  though  hooted  by  the  London 
rabble,  was  graciously  received  in  that  court,  with  which  hf 
had  been  familiar  forty  years  before.  He  was  at  once  con 
firmed  in  his  title,  the  Earldom  of  Tyrconnell  was  created  foi 
O'Donnell,  and  the  Lordship  of  Enniskillen  for  Maguire. 
Mountjoy,  created  Earl  of  Devonshire,  retained  the  title  of 
Lord  Lieutenant,  with  permission  to  reside  in  England,  and 
was  rewarded  by  the  appointment  of  Master  of  the  Ordnance 
and  Warden  of  the  New  Forest,  with  an  ample  pension  from 
the  Crown  to  him  and  his  heirs  forever,  the  grant  of  the  county 
of  Lecale  (Down),  and  the  estate  of  Kingston  Hall,  in  Dorset- 
shire. He  survived  but  three  short  year*  to  enjoy  all  tluse 
riches  and  honors ;  at  the  age  of  44,  wasted  with  dissipation 
and  domestic  troubles,  he  passed  to  his  final  account. 

The  necessity  of  conciliating  the  Catholic  party  in  England, 
of  maintaining  peace  in  Ireland,  and  prosecuting  the  Spanish 
negotiations,  not  less,  perhaps,  than  his  own  original  bias,  led 
James  to  deal  favorably  with  the  Catholics  at  first.  But 
having  attempted  to  enforce  the  new  Anglican  Canons, 
adopted  in  1004,  against  the  Puritans,  that  party  retaliated  by 
raising  against  him  the  cry  of  favoring  the  Papists.  This  cry 
alarmed  the  King,  who  had  always  before  his  eyes  the  fear  of 
Presbyterianism,  and  he  accordingly  made  a  speech  in  th 
Star  Chamber,  declaring  his  utter  detestation  of  Popery,  and 
published  a  proclamation  banishing  all  Catholic  missionaries 


POPULAR  HISTORY   07   IRELAND.  461 

from  the  country.  All  magistrates  were  instructed  to  enforce 
the  penal  laws  with  rigor,  and  an  elaborate  spy  system  for  the 
discovery  of  concealed  recusants  was  set  on  foot.  This  reign 
of  treachery  and  terror  drove  a  few  desperate  men  into  the 
gunpowder  plot  of  the  following  year,  and  rendered  it  diffi- 
cult, if  not  impossible,  for  the  King  to  return  to  the  policy  ol 
toleration,  with  which,  to  do  him  justice,  he  seems  to  have  set 
out  from  Scotland. 

Carew,  President  of  Munster  during  the  late,  war,  became 
Deputy  to  Mountjoy  on  his  departure  for  England.  He  was 
succeeded  in  October,  1604,  by  Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  who, 
with  the  exception  of  occasional  absences  at  Court,  continued 
in  office  for  a  period  of  eleven  years.  This  nobleman,  a  native 
of  England,  furnishes,  in  many  points,  a  parallel  to  his  cotem- 
porary  and  friend,  Robert  Boyle,  Earl  of  Cork.  The  object 
of  his  life  was  to  found  and  to  endow  the  Donegal  peerage 
out  of  the  spoils  of  Ulster,  as  richly  as  Boyle  endowed  his 
earldom  out  of  the  confiscation  of  Munster.  Both  were  Puri- 
tans rather  than  Churchmen,  in  their  religious  opinions ;  Chi- 
chester, a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Cartwright,  and  a  favorer 
all  his  life  of  the  congregational  clergy  in  Ulster.  But  they 
carried  their  repugnance  to  the  interference  of  the  civil  mag- 
istrate in  matters  of  conscience  so  discreetly  as  to  satisfy  the 
high  church  notions  both  of  James  and  Elizabeth.  For  the 
violence  they  were  thus  compelled  to  exercise  against  them- 
selves, they  seem  to  have  found  relief  in  bitter  and  continuous 
persecution  of  others.  Boyle,  as  the  leading  spirit  in  the 
government  of  Munster,  as  Lord  Treasurer,  and  occasionally 
as  Lord  Justice,  had  ample  opportunities,  during  his  long 
career  of  forty  years,  to  indulge  at  once  his  avarice  and  hid 
bigatry ;  and  no  situation  was  ever  more  favorable  than  Chi- 
Chester's  for  a  proconsul,  eager  to  enrich  himself  at  the  expensa 
of  a  subjugated  Province. 

In  the  projected  work  of  the  reduction  of  the  whole  country  to 
the  laws  and  customs  of  England,  it  is  instructive  to  observe  that 
a  Parliament  was  not  called  in  the  first  place.  The  reformers 
proceeded  by  proclamations,  letters  patent,  and  orders  in 
council,  not  by  legislation.  The  whole  island  was  divided  int« 


468  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

82  counties  and  6  judicial  circuits,  all  of  which  were  visited 
by  Justices  in  the  second  or  third  year  of  this  reign  and  after- 
wards semi-annually.  On  the  Northern  Circuit  Sir  Edward 
Pelham  and  Sir  John  Davis  were  accompanied  by  the  Deputy 
in  person  with  a  numerous  retinue.  In  some  places  the  towns 
were  BO  wasted  by  the  late  war,  pestilence,  and  famine,  that 
the  Viceregal  party  were  obliged  to  camp  out  in  the  fields, 
and  to  carry  with  them  their  own  provisions.  The  Courts 
were  held  in  ruined  castles  and  deserted  monasteries  ;  Irish 
interpreters  were  at  every  step  found  necessary ;  sheriffs  were 
installed  in  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnell  for  the  first  time;  all  law- 
yers appearing  in  court  and  all  justices  of  the  peace  were 
tendered  the  oath  ol  supremacy — the  refusal  of  which  neces- 
sarily excluded  Catholics  both  from  the  bench  and  the 
bar.  An  enormous  amount  of  litigation  as  to  the  law  of  real 
property  was  created  by  a  judgment  of  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench  at  Dublin,  in  1606,  by  which  the  ancient  Irish  customs, 
of  tanistry  and  gavelkind,  were  declared  null  and  void,  and  the 
entire  Feudal  system,  with  ita  rights  of  primogeniture,  heredi- 
tary succession,  «ntail,  and  vassalage,  was  held  to  exist  in  as 
full  force  as  in  England.  Very  evidently  this  decision  was  not 
less  a  violation  of  the  articles  of  Mellifont  than  was  the  King's 
proclamation  against  freedom  of  conscience  issued  about  the 
same  time. 

Sir  John  Davis,  who  has  left  us  two  very  interesting  tract* 
on  Irish  affairs,  speaking  of  the  new  legal  regulations  of 
which  he  was  one  of  the  principal  superintendents,  observes 
that  the  old-fashioned  allowances  to  be  found  so  often  in  the 
Pipe-Rolls,  pro  guidagio  et  spiagio,  into  the  interior,  may 
well  be  spared  thereafter,  since  "the  under  sheriffs  and 
bailiffs  errant  are  better  guides  and  spies  in  time  of  peace 
than  they  were  found  in  time  of  war  "  He  adds,  what  we 
may  very  well  believe,  that  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  complained  hf 
had  HO  many  eyes  upon  him,  that  he  could  not  drink  a  cup  of 
Back  without  the  government  being  advertised  of  it  within  a 
few  hours  afterwards.  This  system  of  social  espionage,  so  re- 
pugnant to  all  the  habits  of  the  Celtic  family,  was  not  the 
only  mode  of  annoyance  resorted  to  against  the  veteran  chiet 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND.  469 

Every  former  dependant  who  could  be  Induced  to  dispute  his 
claims  as  a  landlord,  under  the  new  relations  established  by 
the  late  decision,  was  sure  of  a  judgment  in  his  favor.  Dis- 
putes about  boundaries  with  O'Cane,  about  the  commuta- 
tion of  chieftain-rents  into  tenantry,  about  church  land* 
claimed  by  Montgomery,  Protestant  Bishop  of  Deny,  were 
almost  invariably  decided  against  him.  Harassed  by  these 
proceedings,  and  all  uncertain  of  the  future,  O'Neil  listened 
willingly  to  the  treacherous  suggestion  of  St.  Lawrence, 
Lord  Howth,  that  the  leading  Catholics  of  the  Pale,  and  those 
of  Ulster,  should  endeavor  to  form  another  confederation. 
The  execution  of  Father  Garnet,  Provincial  of  the  Jesuits  in 
England,  the  heavy  fines  inflicted  on  Lords  Stourton,  Mor- 
daunt,  and  Montague,  and  the  new  oath  of  allegiance,  framed 
by  Archbishop  Abbott,  and  sanctioned  by  the  English  Parlia- 
ment— all  events  of  the  year  1606 — were  calculated  to  inspire 
the  Irish  Catholics  with  desperate  councils.  A  dutiful  remon- 
strance against  the  Act  of  Uniformity  the  previous  year  had 
been  signed  by  the  principal  Anglo-Irish  Catholics  for  trans- 
mission to  the  King,  but  their  delegates  were  seized  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  Castle,  while  their  principal  agent,  Sir  Patrick 
Barawell,  was  sent  to  London  and  confined  in  the  Tower.  A 
meeting  at  Lord  Howth's  suggestion  was  held  about  Christ- 
mas, 1606,  at  the  Castle  of  Maynooth,  then  in  possession  of 
the  dowager  Countess  of  Kildare,  one  of  whose  daughters  was 
married  to  Christopher  Nugent,  Baron  of  Delvin,  and  her 
granddaughter  to  Bory,  Earl  of  Tyrconnell.  There  were 
preseht  O'Neil,  O'Donnell,  and  O'Cane,  on  the  one  part, 
and  Lords  Delvin  and  Howth  on  the  other.  The  precisa 
result  of  this  conference,  disguised  under  the  pretext  of 
a  Christmas  party,  was  never  made  known,  but  the  fact  that 
it  had  been  held,  and  that  the  parties  present  had  enter- 
tained the  project  of  another  confederacy  for  the  defense 
of  the  Catholic  religion,  was  mysteriously  communicated 
in  an  anonymous  letter,  directed  to  Sir  William  Usher, 
Clerk  of  the  Council,  which  was  dropped  in  the  Council  Cham- 
ber of  DuVMn  Castle,  in  March,  1607.  This  letter  it  is  now 
generally  believed  was  written  by  Lord  Howth,  who  wai 
40 


,'0  POPULAB  HKTORT   Of  IRELAND. 

thought  to  have  been  employed  by  Secretary  Cecil,  to  entrap 
the  northern  Earls,  in  order  to  betray  them.  In  May,  O'Neil 
and  O'Donnell  were  cited  to  attend  the  Lord  Deputy  in  Dublin, 
but  the  charges  were  for  the  time  kept  in  abeyance,  and  they 
were  ordered  to  appear  in  London  before  the  feast  of  Michael- 
mas. Early  in  September  O'Neil  was  with  Chichester  at 
SI  me,  in  Meath,  when  he  received  a  letter  from  Maguire,  who 
had  been  out  of  the  country,  conveying  information  on  which 
he  immediately  acted.  Taking  leave  of  the  Lord  Deputy  aa 
if  to  prepare  for  his  journey  to  London,  he  made  some  stay 
with  his  old  friend,  Sir  Qarrett  Moore,  at  Mellifont,  on  parting 
from  whose  family  he  tenderly  bade  farewell  to  the  children 
and  even  the  servants,  and  was  observed  to  shed  tears.  A I 
Dungannon  he  remained  two  days,  and  on  the  shore  of  Lough- 
Swilly  he  joined  O'Donnell  and  others  of  his  connexions.  The 
French  ship,  in  which  Maguire  had  returned,  awaited  them  off 
Rathmullen,  and  there  they  took  shipping  for  France.  With 
O'Neil  in  that  sorrowful  company,  were  his  last  countess,  Cathe- 
rine, daughter  of  Magennis,  his  three  sons,  Hugh,  John,  and 
Brian ;  his  nephew  Art,  son  of  Comae,  Rory  O'Donnell,  Caffar, 
his  brother,  Nuala,  his  sister,  who  had  forsaken  her  husband 
Nial  Garve,  when  he  forsook  his  country ;  the  lady  Rose 
O'Doherty,  wife  of  Caffar,  and  afterwards  of  Owen  Roe 
O'Neil;  Maguire,  Owen  Mac  Ward,  chief  bard  of  Tyrconnell, 
and  several  others.  "  Woe  to  the  heart  that  meditated,  woe 
to  the  mind  that  conceived,  woe  to  the  council  that  decided 
on  the  project  of  that  voyage !"  exclaimed  the  Annalists  of 
Donegal,  in  the  next  age.  Evidently  it  wan  the  judgment  of 
their  immediate  successors  that  the  flight  of  the  earls  was  a 
rash  and  irremediable  step  for  them  ;  but  the  information  on 
which  they  acted,  if  not  long  since  destroyed,  has,  as  yet, 
never  been  made  public.  We  can  pronounce  no  Judgment  a* 
to  the  wisdom  of  their  conduct,  from  the  incomplete  state- 
ments at  present  in  our  possession. 

There  remained  now  few  barriers  to  the  wholesale  confisca- 
tion of  Ulster,  so  long  sought  by  "  the  Undertakers,"  and 
these  were  rapidly  removed.  Sir  Cahir  O'Doherty,  chief  ol 
Innishowen,  although  he  bad  earned  his  Knighthood  while  a 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  4*71 

mere  lad,  fighting  by  the  side  of  Dowcra,  in  an  altercation 
with  Sir  George  Paulett,  Governor  of  Deny,  was  taunted  with 
conniving  at  the  escape  of  the  Earls,  and  Paulett  in  his  pas^ 
sion  struck  him  in  the  face.  The  youthful  chief— he  was 
scarcely  one  and  twenty — was  driven  almost  to  madness  by 
this  outrage.  On  the  night  of  the  3d  of  May,  by  a  successful 
tratagem  he  got  possession  of  Culmore  fort,  at  the  mouth  of 
Lough  Foyle,  and  before  morning  dawned  had  surprise! 
Derry  ;  Paulett,  his  insulter,  he  slew  with  his  own  hand,  most 
of  the  garrison  were  slaughtered,  and  the  town  reduced  to 
ashes.  Nial  Garve  O'Donnell,  who  had  been  cast  off  by  ha 
old  protectors,  was  charged  with  sending  him  supplies  and 
men,  and  for  three  months  he  kept  the  field,  hoping  that  every 
gale  might  bring  him  assistance  from  abroad.  But  those 
game  summer  mouths  and  foreign  climes  had  already  proved 
fatal  to  many  of  the  exiles,  whose  co-operation  he  invoked. 
In  July  Rory  O'Donnell  expired  at  Rome,  in  August  Maguiro 
died  at  Genoa,  on  his  way  to  Spain,  and  in  September  Caffar 
O'Donnell  was  laid  in  the  same  grave  with  his  brother,  on  St. 
Peter's  hill.  O'Neil  survived  his  comrades,  as  he  had  done  his 
fortunes,  and  like  another  Belisarius,  blind  and  old  and  a  pen- 
sioner on  the  bounty  of  strangers,  he  lived  on,  eight  weary 
years,  in  Rome.  O'Doherty,  enclosed  in  his  native  peninsula, 
between  the  forces  of  the  Maishal  \Vmgfield  and  Sir  Oliver 
Lambert,  Governor  of  Connaught,  fell  by  a  chance  shot,  at 
the  rock  of  Doon,  in  Kilmacrenan.  The  superfluous  traitor, 
Nial  Garve,  was,  with  his  sons,  sent  to  London  and  imprisoned  in 
the  tower  for  life.  In  those  dungeons,  Cormac,  brother  of 
Hugh  O'Neil,  and  O'Cane  also  languished  out  their  days,  vic- 
tims to  the  careless  or  vindictive  temper  of  King  James.  Sir 
Arthur  Chichester  received,  soon  after  these  events,  a 
grant  of  the  entire  barony  of  Innishowen,  and  subsequently  a 
grant  of  the  borough  of  Dungannon,  with  1,300  acres  adjoin- 
ing ;  Wingfield  obtained  the  district  of  Percullan  near  Dublin, 
with  the  title  of  Viscount  Powerscourt ;  Lambert  was  soon 
after  made  Earl  of  Cavan,  and  enriched  with  the  lands  of 
Carig,  and  other  estates  in  that  county. 

To  justify  at  once  the  measures  he  proposed,  as  well  as  t* 


4*12  POPULAR  HI3TOBT   OF  IJltLAND. 

divert  from  the  exiles  the  sympathies  of  Europe,  King  Jamel 
issued  a  proclamation  bearing  date  the  5th  of  November, 
1608,  giving  to  the  world  the  English  version  of  the  flight  of 
the  Earls.  The  whole  of  Ulster  was  then  surveyed  in  a  cur- 
sory manner  by  a  staff  over  which  presided  Sir  William  Par- 
sons as  Surveyor-General.  The  surveys  being  completed 
early  in  1609,  a  royal  commission  was  issued  to  Chichester, 
Lambert,  St.  John,  Bidgeway,  Moore,  David,  and  Parsous, 
with  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  and  the  Bishop  of  Derry,  to 
inquire  into  the  portions  forfeited.  Before  these  Commission- 
ers Juries  were  sworn  on  each  particular  case,  and  these 
Juries  duly  found  that,  in  consequence  of  "the  rebellion"  of 
O'Neil,  O'Donnell,  and  O'Doherty,  the  entire  six  counties  of 
Ulster,  enumerated  by  baronies  and  parishes,  were  forfeited 
to  the  Crown.  By  direction  from  England  the  Irish  Privy 
Council  submitted  a  scheme  for  planting  these  counties  "  with 
colonies  of  civil  men  well  affected  in  religion,"  which  scheme, 
with  several  modifications  suggested  by  the  English  Privy 
Council,  was  finally  promulgated  by  the  royal  legislator 
under  the  title  of  "  Orders  and  Conditions  for  the  Planters." 
According  to  the  division  thus  ordered,  upwards  of  43,000 
acres  were  claimed  and  conceded  to  the  Primate  and  the 
Protestant  Bishops  of  Ulster;  in  Tyrone,  Derry,  and  Armagh, 
Trinity  College  got 30,000  acres  with  six  advowsons  in  each 
county.  The  various  trading  guilds  of  the  city  of  London— 
such  as  the  drapers,  vintners,  cordwainers,  drysalters — ob- 
tained in  the  gross  209,800  acres,  including  the  city  of  Derry, 
which  they  rebuilt  and  fortified,  adding  London  to  its  ancient 
name.  The  grants  to  individuals  were  divided  into  three 
classes — 2,000,  1,600,  and  1,000  acres  each.  Among  the  con- 
dit ions  on  which  these  grants  were  given  was  this — "  that  they 
should  not  suffer  any  laborer,  that  would  not  take  the  oath  of 
•upremacy,"  to  dwell  upon  their  lands.  But  this  despotic 
condition— equivalent  to  sentence  of  death  on  tens  of  thou- 
•amlR  of  the  native  peasantry — was  fortunately  found  imprac- 
ticable in  the  execution.  Land  was  little  worth  without  handf 
to  till  it ,  laborers  enough  could  not  be  obtained  from  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  and  the  Hamiltons,  Stewarts,  Folliots,  Chi- 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  473 

cheaters,  and  Lamberts,  having,  from  sheer  necessity,  to 
choose  between  Irish  cultivators  and  letting  their  new  estates 
lie  waste  and  unprofitable,  it  is  needless  to  say  what  choice 
they  made. 

The  spirit  of  religious  persecution  was  exhibited  not  only  in 
the  means  taken  to  exterminate  the  peasantry,  to  destroy  the 
northern  chiefs,  and  to  intimidate  the  Catholics  of  '  the  Pale" 
by  abuse  of  law,  but  by  many  cruel  executions.  The  Prior 
of  the  famous  retreat  of  Lough  Derg  was  one  of  the  victims 
of  this  persecution;  a  Priest  named  O'Loughrane,  who  had 
accidentally  sailed  in  the  same  ship  with  the  Earls  to  France, 
was  taken  prisoner  on  his  return,  hanged  and  quartered. 
Conor  O'Devany,  Bishop  of  Down  and  Connor,  an  octogena- 
rian, suffered  martyrdom  with  heroic  constancy  at  Dtfblin,  in 
1611.  Two  years  before,  John,  Lord  Burke  of  Brittas,  was 
executed  in  like  manner  on  a  charge  of  having  participated 
in  the  Catholic  demonstrations  which  took  place  at  Limerick 
on  the  accession  of  King  James.  The  edict  of  1610  in  relation 
to  Catholic  children  educated  abroad  has  been  quoted  in  a 
previous  chapter,  apropos  of  education,  but  the  scheme  sub- 
mitted by  Knox,  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  to  Chichester  in  1611  went 
even  beyond  that  edict.  In  this  project  it  was  proposed  that 
whoever  should  be  found  to  harbor  a  Priest  should  forfeit  all 
his  possessions  to  the  Crown — that  quarterly  returns  should  be 
made  out  by  counties  of  all  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  of 
supremacy,  or  to  attend  the  English  Church  service — that  no 
Papist  should  be  permitted  to  exercise  the  function  of  a 
schoolmaster ;  and,  moreover,  that  all  churches  injured  during 
the  late  war  should  be  repaired  at  the  expense  of  the  Papist 
inhabitants  for  the  use  of  the  Anglican  congregation. 

Very  unexpectedly  to  the  nation  at  large,  after  a  lapse  of 
27  years,  during  which  no  Parliament  had  been  held,  write 
were  issued  for  the  attendance  of  both  Houses,  at  Dublin,  on 
the  18th  of  May,  1613.  The  work  of  confiscation  and  planta- 
tion had  gone  on  for  several  years  without  the  sanction  of  the 
legislature,  and  men  were  at  a  loss  to  conceive  for  what  pur- 
pose elections  were  now  ordered,  unless  to  invent  new  penal 
laws,  or  to  impose  fresh  burdens  on  the  country.  With  alj 


474  POPDLAB  HISTORY   OF  IBUJLND. 

the  efforts  which  had  been  made  to  introduce  civil  men,  well 
affected  in  religion,  it  was  certain  that  the  Catholics  would 
return  a  large  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  not  only  in 
the  chief  towns,  but  from  the  fifteen  old,  and  seventeen  new 
counties,  lately  created.  To  counterbalance  this  majority 
over  40  boroughs,  returning  two  members  each,  were  created, 
by  royal  charter,  in  places  thinly  or  not  at  all  inhabited,  ot 
where  towns  were  merely  projected  on  the  estates  of  leading 
"  Undertakers."  Against  the  issue  of  writs  returnable  by 
these  fictitious  corporations,  the  Lords  Gormanstown,  Slane, 
Killeen,  Trimbleston,  Dunsany,  and  Howth,  signed  an  humble 
remonstrance  to  the  King,  concluding  with  a  prayer  for  the 
relaxation  of  the  penal  laws  affecting  religion.  The  King, 
whose  notions  of  prerogative  were  extravagantly  high,  was 
highly  incensed  at  this  petition  of  the  Catholic  peers  of  Leins- 
ter,  and  Chichester  proceeded  with  his  full  approbation  to 
pack  the  Parliament.  At  the  elections,  however,  many  "  recu- 
sant lawyers"  and  other  Catholic  candidates  were  returned,  so 
that  when  the  day  of  meeting  arrived  101  Catholic  representa- 
tives assembled  at  Dublin,  some  accompanied  by  bands  of 
from  100  to  200  armed  followers.  The  supporters  of  the  gov- 
ernment claimed  125  votes,  and  six  were  found  to  be  absent, 
making  the  whole  number  of  the  House  of  Commons  282. 
The  Upper  House  consisted  of  50  Peers,  of  whom  there  were 
25  Protestant  Bishops,  so  that  the  Deputy  was  certain  of  a  ma- 
jority in  that  chamber,  on  all  points  of  ecclesiastical  legislation, 
at  least.  Although,  with  the  facts  before  us,  we  cannot  agree 
with  Sir  John  Davis  that  King  James  I.  gave  Ireland  her  "  first 
free  Parliament,"  it  is  impossible  not  to  entertain  a  high  sense 
of  admiration  for  the  constitutional  firmness  of  the  recusant  or 
Catholic  party  in  that  assembly.  At  the  very  outset  they  suc- 
cessfully resisted  the  proposition  to  meet  in  the  Castle, 
surrounded  by  the  Deputy's  guards,  as  a  silent  menace.  They 
next  contended  that  before  proceeding  to  the  election  of 
Speaker  the  Council  should  submit  to  the  Judges  the  decision 
nf  the  alleged  invalid  elections.  A  tumultuous  and  protracted 
debate  was  had  on  this  point.  The  Castle  party  argued  that 
.hey  should  first  elect  a  Speaker  and  then  proceed  to  try  th« 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OP   IMLAKD.  475 

ejections ;  the  Catholics  contended  that  there  were  persons 
present  whose  votes  would  determine  the  Speakership,  but 
who  had  no  more  title  in  law  than  the  horseboys  at  the  door. 
This  was  the  preliminary  trial  of  strength.  The  candidate  of 
the  Castle  for  the  Speakership  was  Sir  John  Davis,  of  the 
Catholics,  Sir  John  Everard,  who  had  resigned  his  seat  on 
the  bench  rather  than  take  the  oath  of  supremacy  framed 
by  Archbishop  Abbott.  The  Castle  party  having  gone 
into  the  lobby  to  be  counted  the  Catholics  placed  Sir  John 
Everard  in  the  Chair.  On  their  return  the  government  sup- 
porters placed  Sir  John  Davis  in  Everard's  lap,  and  a  scene 
of  violent  disorder  ensued.  The  House  broke  up  in  confusion  ; 
the  recusants  in  a  body  declared  their  intention  not  to  be  pre- 
sent at  its  deliberations,  and  the  Lord  Deputy  finding  them 
resolute  suddenly  prorogued  the  session.  Both  parties  ser.t 
deputies  to  England  to  lay  their  complaints  at  the  foot  of  the 
throne.  The  Catholic  spokesmen,  Talbot  and  Lutrell,  were 
received  with  a  storm  of  reproaches,  and  committed  the  for- 
mer to  the  Tower,  the  other  to  the  Fleet  Prison.  They  were, 
however,  released  after  a  brief  confinement,  and  a  Commission 
was  issued  to  inquire  into  the  alleged  electoral  frauds.  By  the 
advice  of  Everard  and  others  of  their  leaders,  a  compromise  was 
effected  with  the  Castle  party ;  members  returned  for  boroughs 
incorporated  after  the  writs  were  issued  were  declared  ex- 
cluded, the  contestation  of  seats  on  other  grounds  of  irregular- 
ity were  withdrawn,  and  the  House  accordingly  proceeded  to 
the  business  for  which  they  were  called  together.  The 
chief  acts  of  the  sessions  of  1614,  '15  and  '16,  beside  the 
grant  of  four  entire  subsidies  to  the  Crown,  were  an  Act 
joyfully  recognizing  the  King's  title ;  acts  repealing  statutes 
of  Elizabeth  and  Henry  VIII.,  as  to  distinctions  of  race ;  an 
act  repealing  the  3  and  4  of  Philip  and  Mary,  against  "  bring- 
ing Scots  into  Ireland,"  and  the  acts  of  attainder  against 
O'Neil,  O'Donnell  and  O'Doherty.  The  recusant  minority  have 
been  heavily  censured  by  our  recent  historians  for  consenting 
to  these  attainders.  Though  the  censure  may  be  in  part  de- 
served, it  is  nevertheless  clear  that  they  had  not  the  power  to 
prerent  their  passage,  even  if  they  had  been  unanimous  it; 


476  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 

their  opposition ;  but  they  had  influence  enough,  fortunately, 
to  oblige  the  government  to  withdraw  a  sweeping  penal  law 
which  it  was  intended  to  propose.  An  Act  of  oblivion  and 
amnesty  was  also  passed,  which  was  of  some  advantage.  On 
the  whole,  both  for  the  constitutional  principles  which  they 
upheld,  and  the  religious  proscription  which  they  resisted, 
the  Recusant  minority  in  the  Irish  Parliament  of  James  I. 
deserve  to  be  held  in  honor  by  all  who  value  religious  and 
«ivil  liberty. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LAST  TEARS  OF  JAMES— CONFISCATION  OP  THE  MIDLAND  COPN- 
TIES — ACCESSION  OF  CHARLES  I. — GRIEVANCES  AID  "  GRACES" 
— ADMINISTRATION  OP  LORD  STRAPFORD. 

FROM  the  dissolution  of  James's  only  Irish  Parliament  in 
October,  1616,  until  the  tenth  of  Charles  I. — an  interval  of 
twenty  years — the  government  of  the  country  was  again  exclu- 
sively regulated  by  arbitrary  proclamations  and  orders  in  Coun- 
cil. Chichester,  after  the  unusually  long  term  of  eleven  years, 
had  leave  to  retire  in  1816 ;  he  was  succeeded  by  the  Lord 
Grandison,  who  held  the  office  of  Lord  Deputy  for  six  years, 
and  he,  in  turn,  by  Henry  Carey,  Viscount  Falkland,  who  gov- 
erned from  1622  till  1629 — seven  years.  Nothing  could  well 
be  more  fluctuating  than  the  policy  pursued  at  different  periods 
by  these  Viceroys  and  their  advisers  ;  violent  attempts  at 
coercion  alternated  with  the  meanest  devices  to  extort  money 
from  the  oppressed  ;  general  declarations  against  recusants 
were  repeated  with  increased  vehemence,  while  particular 
treaties  for  a  local  and  conditional  toleration  were  notoriously 
progressing  ;  in  a  word,  the  administration  of  affairs  exhibited 
all  the  worst  vices  and  weaknesses  of  a  despotism,  without 
any  of  the  steadiness  or  magnanimity  of  a  really  paternal  gov- 
ernment. Some  of  the  edicts  issued  deserve  particular  notice 
as  characterizing  the  administrations  of  Grandison  and  Falkland, 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  471 

The  municipal  authorities  of  Waterford,  having  invariably 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  were  by  an  order  in 
Council  deprived  of  their  ancient  charter,  which  was  withheld 
from  them  for  nine  years.  The  ten  shilling  tax  on  recusants 
for  non-attendance  at  the  Anglican  service  was  rigorously 
enforced  in  other  cities,  and  was  almost  invariably  levied  with 
costs,  which  not  seldom  swelled  the  ten  shillings  to  ten  pounds, 
A  new  instrument  of  oppression  was,  also  in  Lord  Qrandison's 
time,  invented — "  the  Commission  for  the  Discovery  of  Defect- 
ive Titles."  At  the  head  of  this  Commission  was  placed  Sir 
William  Parsons,  the  Surveyor-General,  who  had  come  into 
the  kingdom  in  a  menial  situation,  and  had,  through  a  long 
half  century  of  guile  and  cruelty,  contributed  as  much  to  the 
destruction  of  its  inhabitants,  by  the  perversion  of  law,  as  any 
armed  conqueror  could  have  done  by  the  edge  of  the  sword. 
Ulster  being  already  applotted,  and  Munster  undergoing  the 
manipulation  of  the  new  Earl  of  Cork,  there  remained  as  a  field 
for  the  Parsons  Commission  only  the  Midland  Counties  and  Con- 
naught.  Of  these  they  made  the  most  in  the  shortest  space  of 
time.  A  horde  of  clerkly  spies  were  employed  under  the  name 
of  "  Discoverers,"  to  ransack  old  Irish  tenures  in  the  archives 
of  Dublin  and  London,  with  such  good  success,  that  in  a  very 
ehort  time  66,000  acres  in  Wicklow,  and  385,000  acres  in 
Leitrim,  Longford,  the  Meaths,  and  King's  and  Queen's 
Counties,  were  "  found  by  inquisition  to  be  vested  in  the 
Crown."  The  means  employed  by  the  Commissioners,  in 
some  cases,  to  elicit  such  evidence  as  they  required,  were  of 
the  most  revolting  description.  In  the  Wicklow  case,  courts- 
martial  were  held,  before  which  unwilling  witnesses  were 
tried  on  the  charge  of  treason  and  some  actually  put  to 
death.  Archer,  one  of  the  number,  had  his  flesh  burned  with 
red  hot  iron,  and  was  placed  on  a  gridiron  over  a  charcoal 
fire,  till  he  offered  to  testify  anything  that  was  necessary. 
Yet  on  evidence  so  obtained  whole  baronies  and  counties 
were  declared  forfeited  to  the  Crown. 

The  recusants,  though  suffering  under  every  sort  of  injustice, 
and  kept  in  a  state  of  continual  apprehension — a  condition 
worse  even  than  the  actual  horrors  they  endured — counted 


478  TOPCLIR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

many  educated  and  wealthy  persona  in  their  ranks,  besides 
mustering  fnlly  ninety  per  cent  of  the  whole  population. 
They  were,  therefore,  far  from  being  politically  powerless. 
The  recall  of  Lord  Grandison  from  the  government  was  attri- 
buted to  their  direct  or  indirect  influence  upon  the  King 
When  James  Ussher,  then  Bishop  of  Meath,  preached  before 
his  successor  from  the  text  "He  beareth  not  the  sword  in 
rain,"  they  were  sufficiently  formidable  to  compel  him  pub- 
licly to  apologize  for  his  violent  allusions  to  their  body.  Per- 
haps, however,  we  should  mainly  see  in  the  comparative  tolera- 
tion, extended  by  Lord  Falkland,  an  effect  of  the  diplomacy 
then  going  on,  for  the  marriage  of  Prince  Charles  to  the 
Infanta  of  Spain.  When,  in  1623,  Pope  Gregory  XV.  granted 
a  dispensation  for  this  marriage,  James  solemnly  swore  to  a 
private  article  of  the  marriage  treaty,  by  which  he  bound  him- 
self to  suspend  the  execution  of  the  Penal  laws,  to  procure 
their  repeal  in  Parliament,  and  to  grant  a  toleration  of  Catholic 
worship  in  private  houses.  But  the  Spanish  match  was  unex- 
pectedly broken  off,  immediately  after  his  decease  (June, 
1625),  whereupon  Charles  married  Henrietta  Maria,  daughter 
of  Henry  IV.  of  France. 

The  new  monarch  inherited  from  his  father  three  kingdoms 
heaving  in  the  throes  of  disaffection  and  rebellion.  In  Eng- 
land the  most  formidable  of  the  malcontents  were  the  Puritans, 
who  reckoned  many  of  the  first  nobility,  and  the  ablest  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  among  their  chiefs ;  the  resto- 
ration of  episcopacy,  and  the  declaration  by  the  subservient 
Parliament  of  Scotland,  that  no  General  Assembly  should  b« 
called  without  the  King's  sanction,  had  laid  the  sure  foundations 
of  a  religious  insurrection  hi  the  North;  while  the  events, 
which  we  have  already  described,  filled  the  minds  of  all  orders 
of  men  in  Ireland  with  agitation  and  alarm.  The  marriage  of 
Charles  with  Henrietta  Maria  gave  a  ray  of  assurance  to  the 
coreligionists  of  the  young  Queen,  for  they  had  not  then  discov- 
ered that  it  was  ever  the  habit  of  the  Stuarts  "  to  sacrifice 
their  friends  to  the  fear  of  their  enemies."  While  he  was  yet 
celebrating  his  nuptials  at  Whitehall,  surrounded  by  Catholia 
guoots,  the  Ilonse  of  Commons  presented  Charles  "  a  piou* 


MPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  479 

petition,"  praying  him  to  put  into  force  the  laws  against  recu- 
sants ;  a  prayer  which  he  was  compelled  by  motives  of  policy 
to  answer  in  the  affirmati?e.  The  magistrates  of  England  re- 
ceiyed  orders  accordingly,  and  when  the  King  of  France  re- 
monstrated against  this  flagrant  breach  of  one  of  the  articles 
of  the  marriage  treaty  (the  same  included  in  the  terms  of  the 
Spanish  match),  Charles  answered  that  he  had  never  looked 
on  the  promised  toleration  as  anything  but  an  artifice  to  se- 
cure the  Papal  dispensation.  But  the  King's  compliance  failed 
to  satisfy  the  Puritan  party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that 
same  year  began  their  contest  with  the  Crown,  which  ended 
only  on  the  scaffold  before  Whitehall  in  1648.  Of  their  twenty- 
three  years'  struggle,  except  in  so  far  as  it  enters  directly  into 
our  narrative,  we  shall  have  little  to  say,  beyond  reminding  the 
reader,  from  time  to  time,  that  though  it  occasionally  lulled 
down  it  was  never  wholly  allayed  on  either  side. 

Irish  affairs,  in  the  long  continued  suspension  of  the  func- 
tions of  Parliament,  were  administered  in  general  by  the  Privy 
Council,  and  in  detail  by  three  special  courts,  all  established 
in  defiance  of  ancient  constitutional  usage.  These  were  the 
Court  of  Castle  Chamber,  modelled  on  the  English  Star  Cham- 
ber, and  the  Ecclesiastical  High  Commissioners  Court,  both 
dating  from  1663  ;  and  the  Court  of  Wards  and  Liveries,  ori- 
ginally founded  by  Henry  VIII.,  but  lately  remodelled  by 
James.  The  Castle  Chamber  was  composed  of  certain  selected 
members  of  the  Privy  Council  acting  in  secret  with  absolute 
power ;  the  High  Commission  Court  was  constituted  under 
James  and  Charles,  of  the  principal  Archbishops  and  Bishops, 
with  the  Lord  Deputy,  Chancellor,  Chief  Justice,  Master  of 
the  Rolls,  Master  of  the  Wards,  and  some  others,  laymen  and 
jurists.  They  were  armed  with  unlimited  power  "  to  visit 
reform,  redress,  order,  correct  and  amend,  all  such  errors,  here- 
sies, schisms,  abuses,  offences,  contempts  and  enormities,"  aa 
came  under  the  head  of  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 
They  were,  in  effect,  the  Castle  Chamber,  acting  as  a  spiritual 
tribunal  of  last  resort;  and  were  provided  with  their  own 
officers,  Registers  and  Receivers  of  Fines,  Pursuivants,  Crien 
and  Gaolers.  The  Court  of  Wards  exercised  a  jurisdiction,  if 


480  POPULAR   HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 

possible,  more  repugnant  to  our  first  notions  of  liberty  than 
that  of  the  High  Commission  Court.  It  retained  its  original 
power  "  to  bargain  and  sell  the  custody,  wardship  and  mar- 
riage," of  all  the  heirs  of  such  persons  of  condition  as  died  ii 
the  King's  homage ;  but  their  powers,  by  royal  letters-patent 
of  the  year  1617,  were  to  be  exercised  by  a  Master  of  Wards, 
with  an  Attorney  and  Surveyor,  all  nominated  by  the  Crown. 
The  Court  was  entitled  to  farm  all  the  property  of  its  Wards 
during  nonage,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Crown,  "  taking  one 
year's  rent  from  heirs  male,  and  two  from  heirs  female,"  for 
charges  of  stewardship.  The  first  master,  Sir  William  Par- 
sons, wan  appointed  in  1622,  and  confirmed  at  the  beginning 
of  the  next  reign,  with  a  salary  of  £300  per  annum,  and  the 
right  to  rank  next  to  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  at 
the  Privy  Council.  By  this  appointment  the  minor  heirs  of 
all  the  Catholic  proprietors  were  placed,  both  as  to  person 
and  property,  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  one  of  the  most 
intense  anti-Catholic  bigots  that  ever  appeared  on  the  scene 
of  Irish  affairs. 

ID  addition  to  these  civil  grievances  an  order  had  lately 
been  issued  to  increase  the  army  In  Ireland  by  5,000  men, 
and  means  of  subsistence  had  to  be  found  for  that  aditional 
force,  within  the  kingdom.  In  reply  to  the  murmurs  of  the 
inhabitants  they  were  assured  by  Lord  Falkland  that  the 
King  was  their  friend,  and  that  any  just  and  temperate  repre- 
sentation of  their  grievances  would  secure  his  careful  and 
instant  attention.  So  encouraged,  the  leading  Catholics  con- 
voked a  General  Assembly  of  their  nobility  and  gentry,  "  with 
several  Protestants  of  rank,"  at  Dublin,  in  the  year  1628,  in 
»rder  to  present  a  dutiful  statement  of  their  complaints  to  the 
King.  The  minutes  of  this  important  Assembly,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  are  forever  lost  to  us.  We  only  know  that  it  in'cluded 
*  large  number  of  landed  proprietors,  of  whom  the  Catholics 
were  Mill  a  very  numerous  section.  "  The  entire  proceedings 
of  this  Assembly,"  says  Dr.  Taylor,  "  were  marked  by  wisdom 
and  moderation.  They  drew  up  a  number  of  articles,  in  th« 
nature  of  a  Bill  of  Rights,  to  which  they  humbly  solicited  the 
royal  assent,  and  promised  that,  on  their  being  granted, 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF    IRELjlND.  481 

would  raise  a  voluntary  assessment  of  £100,000  for  the  use  of 
the  Crown.  The  principal  articles  in  these  '  graces,'  as  they 
were  called,  were  provisions  for  the  security  of  property,  the 
due  administration  of  justice,  the  prevention  of  military  ex- 
actions, the  freedom  of  trade,  the  better  regulation  of  th« 
clergy,  and  the  restraining  of  the  tyranny  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical courts.  Finally,  they  provided  that  the  Scots,  wht 
had  been  planted  in  Ulster,  should  be  secured  in  their  pos 
sessions,  and  a  general  pardon  granted  for  all  offences." 
Agents  were  chosen  to  repair  to  England  with  this  petition, 
and  the  Assembly,  hoping  for  the  best  results,  adjourned.  But 
the  ultra  Protestant  party  had  taken  the  alarm  and  convoked 
a  Synod  at  Dublin  to  counteract  the  General  Assembly.  This 
Synod  vehemently  protested  against  selling  truth  "  as  a  slave," 
and  "  establishing  for  a  price  idolatry  in  its  stead."  They 
laid  it  down  as  a  dogma  of  their  faith  that  "  to  grant  Papists 
a  toleration,  or  to  consent  that  they  may  freely  exercise  their 
religion  and  profess  their  faith  and  doctrines,  was  a  grievous 
sin ;"  wherefore  they  prayed  God  "  to  make  those  in  authority 
zealous,  resolute  and  courageous  against  all  Popery,  super- 
stition and  idolatry."  This  declaration  of  the  extreme  Pro- 
testants, including  not  only  TTssher  and  the  principal  Bishops, 
but  Chichester,  Boyle,  Parsons,  and  the  most  successful 
"  Undertakers,"  all  deeply  imbued  with  Puritan  notions, 
naturally  found  among  their  English  brethren  advocates  and 
defenders.  The  King  who  had  lately,  for  the  third  time, 
renewed  with  France  the  articles  of  his  marriage  treaty,  was 
placed  in  a  most  difficult  position.  He  desired  to  save  his  own 
honor,  he  sorely  needed  the  money  of  the  Catholics,  but  he 
trembled  before  the  compact,  well  organized  fanaticism  of  the 
Puritans.  In  his  distress  he  had  recourse  to  a  councillor,  who, 
since  the  assassination  of  Buckingham,  his  first  favorite, 
divided  with  Laud  the  royal  confidence.  This  was  Thomas, 
Lord  Wentworth,  better  known  by  his  subsequent  title  of 
Earl  of  Strafford,  a  statesman  born  to  be  the  wonder  and 
the  bane  of  three  kingdoms.  Strafford  (for  such  for  clear- 
ness we  must  call  him)  boldly  advised  the  King  to  grant 
11  the  graces"  as  his  own  personal  act,  to  pocket  the  propose^ 

41 


482  POPULAR  HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

mbsidy,  but  to  contrive  that  the  promised  concessions  he 
was  to  make  should  never  go  into  effect.  This  infamous 
deception  was  effected  in  this  wise:  the  King  signed,  with 
his  own  hand,  a  schedule  of  fifty-one  "  graces,"  and  re- 
ceived from  the  Irish  agents  in  London  bonds  for  £120,000, 
(equal  to  ten  times  the  amount  at  present),  to  be  paid  in  three 
annual  instalments  of  £40,000.  He  also  agreed  that  Parlia- 
ment should  be  immediately  called  in  Ireland,  to  confirm  these 
concessions,  while  at  the  same  time  he  secretly  instructed  Lord 
Falkland  to  see  that  the  writs  of  election  were  informally  pre- 
pared, so  that  no  Parliament  could  be  held.  This  was  accord- 
ingly done ;  the  agents  of  the  General  Assembly  paid  their 
first  instalment;  the  subscribers  held  the  King's  autograph; 
the  writs  were  issued,  but  on  being  returned  were  found  to  be 
technically  incorrect,  and  so  the  legal  confirmation  of  the 
graces  was  indefinitely  postponed,  under  one  pretext  or  an- 
other. As  evidence  of  the  national  demands  at  this  period, 
we  should  add,  that  beside  the  redress  of  minor  grievances, 
the  articles  signed  by  the  King  provided  that  the  recusants 
should  be  allowed  to  practice  in  the  courts  of  law ;  to  sue  the 
livery  of  their  lands  out  of  the  Court  of  Wards,  on  taking  an 
oath  of  civil  allegiance  in  lieu  of  the  oath  of  supremacy  •. 
that  the  claims  of  the  Crown  to  the  forfeiture  of  estates,  under 
the  plea  of  defects  of  title,  should  not  be  held  to  extend  be- 
yond sixty  years  anterior  to  1C28 ;  that  the  "  Undertakers" 
should  have  time  allowed  them  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  their 
leases  ;  that  the  proprietors  of  Connaught  should  be  allowed 
to  make  a  new  enrollment  of  their  estates,  and  that  a  Parlia- 
ment should  be  held.  A  royal  proclamation  announced  these 
concessions,  as  existing  in  the  royal  intention,  but,  as  we  have 
Jready  related,  such  promises  proved  to  be  worth  no  more 
than  the  paper  on  which  they  were  written. 

In  1029  Lord  Falkland,  to  disarm  the  Puritan  outcry  against 
him,  had  leave  to  withdraw,  and  for  four  years— an  unusually 
long  interregnum — the  government  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
Robert  Boyle,  now  Earl  of  Cork,  and  Adam  Loftus,  Viscount 
Ely,  one  of  the  well  dower'd  offspring  of  Queen  Elizabeth'! 
Archbishop  of  Dublin.  Ely  held  the  office  of  Lord  Chan- 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  483 

cellor,  and  Cork  that  of  Lord  High  Treasurer ;  as  Justices, 
they  now  combined  in  their  own  persons  almost  all  the  power 
and  patronage  of  the  kingdom.  Both  affected  a  Puritan 
austerity  and  enthusiasm,  which  barely  cloaked  a  rapacity  and 
bigotry  unequalled  in  any  former  administration.  In  Dublin, 
on  Saint  Stephen's  Day,  1629,  the  Protestant  Archbishop, 
Bulkley,  and  the  Mayor  of  the  city,  entered  the  Carmelite 
Chapel  at  the  head  of  a  file  of  soldiers,  dispersed  the  congre- 
gation, desecrated  the  altar,  and  arrested  the  officiating  friars. 
The  persecution  was  then  taken  up  and  repeated  wherever 
the  executive  power  was  strong  enough  to  defy  the  popular 
indignation.  A  Catholic  seminary  lately  established  in  the 
capital  was  confiscated,  and  turned  over  to  Trinity  College  as 
a  training  school.  Fifteen  religious  houses,  chiefly  belonging 
to  the  Franciscan  Order,  which  had  hitherto  escaped  from  tha 
remoteness  of  their  situation,  were,  by  an  order  of  the  English 
Council,  confiscated  to  the  Crown,  and  their  novices  compelled 
to  emigrate  in  order  to  complete  their  studies  abroad.  A 
reprimand  from  the  King  somewhat  stayed  the  fury  of  the 
Justices,  whose  supreme  power  ended  with  Strafford's  appoint- 
ment in  1633. 

The  advent  of  Strafford  was  characteristic  of  his  whole 
course.  The  King  sent  over  another  letter  concerning  recu- 
sants, declaring  that  the  laws  against  them,  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  Lords  Justices,  should  be  put  strictly  in  force.  The 
Justices  proved  unwilling  to  enter  this  letter  on  the  Council 
book,  and  it  was  accordingly  withheld  till  Strafford's  arrival, 
but  the  threat  had  the  desired  effect  of  drawing  "  a  voluntary 
contribution"  of  £20,000  out  of  the  alarmed  Catholics.  Equip- 
ped partly  with  this  money  Strafford  arrived  in  Dublin  in  July, 
1633,  and  enterad  at  once  on  the  policy,  which  he  himself 
designated  by  the  one  emphatic  word — "  THOROUGH."  He  took 
up  his  abode  in  the  Castle,  surrounded  by  a  Body  Guard,  a 
force  hitherto  unknown  at  the  Irish  Court ;  he  summoned  only 
a  select  number  of  the  Privy  Council,  and,  having  kept 
them  waiting  for  hours,  condescended  to  address  them  in  a 
speech  full  of  arrogance  and  menace.  He  declared  his  inten- 
tion of  maintaining  and  augmenting  the  army ;  advised  then 


484  POPULAB   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

to  amend  their  grants  forthwith ;  told  then,  frankly  he  had 
called  them  to  Council,  more  out  of  courtesy  than  necessity, 
and  ended  by  requiring  from  them  a  year's  subsidy  in  advance. 
As  this  last  request  was  accompanied  by  a  positive  promise  to 
obtain  the  King's  consent  to  the  assembling  of  Parliament,  it 
was  at  once  granted  ;  and  soon  after  writs  were  issued  for  the 
meeting  of  both  Houses  in  July  following. 

When  this  long  prayed-for  Parliament  at  last  met,  the  Lord 
Deputy  took  good  care  that  it  should  be  little  else  than  a  tri- 
bunal to  register  his  edicts.  A  great  many  officers  of  the 
army  had  been  chosen  as  Burgesses,  while  the  Sheriffs  of 
counties  were  employed  to  secure  the  election  of  members 
favorable  to  the  demands  of  the  Crown.  In  the  Parliament 
of  1613  the  recusants  were,  admitting  all  the  returns  to  be 
correct,  nearly  one-half;  but  in  that  of  1634  they  could  not 
have  exceeded  one-third.  The  Lord  Deputy  nominated  their 
speaker,  whom  they  did  not  dare  to  reject,  and  treated  them 
invariably  with  the  supreme  contempt  which  no  one  knows  so 
well  how  to  exhibit  towards  a  popular  assembly  as  an  apostate 
liberal.  "  Surely,"  he  said  in  his  speech  from  the  throne,  "so 
great  a  meanness  cannot  enter  your  hearts,  as  once  to  suspect 
his  Majesty's  gracious  regards  of  you,  and  performance  with 
you,  once  you  affix  yourselves  upon  his  grace."  His  object 
in  this  appeal  was  the  sordid  and  commonplace  one — to  obtain 
more  money  without  rendering  value  for  It.  He  accordingly 
carried  through  four  whole  subsidies  of  £50,000  sterling  each 
in  the  session  of  1634;  and  two  additional  subsidies  of  the 
same  amount  at  the  opening  of  the  next  session.  The  Par* 
liament,  having  thus  answered  his  purpose,  was  summarily 
dissolved  in  April,  1685,  and  for  four  years  more  no  other  waa 
called.  During  both  sessions  he  had  contrived,  according  to 
his  agreement  with  the  King,  to  postpone  indefinitely  the  act 
which  was  10  have  confirmed  "the  graces,"  guaranteed  in 
1^28.  He  even  contrived  to  get  a  report  of  a  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  opinions  of  some  of  the 
Judges,  against  legislating  on  the  subject  at  all,  which  report 
gave  Kiny  Charles  "  a  great  deal  of  contentment," 

With  sufficient  funds  in  hand  for  the  ordinary  expense*  of 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  485 

the  government,  Strafford  applied  himself  earnestly  to  the 
self-elected  task  of  making  his  royal  master  "  as  absolute  as 
any  King  in  Christendom"  on  the  Irish  side  of  the  channel. 
The  plantation  of  Connaught,  delayed  by  the  late  King's  death, 
and  abandoned  among  the  new  King's  graces,  was  resumed  as 
a  main  engine  of  obtaining  more  money.  The  proprietary  of 
that  Province  had,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  late  reign, 
paid  £3,000  into  the  Record  Office  at  Dublin,  for  the  registra- 
tion of  their  deeds,  but  the  entries  not  being  made  by  the 
clerk  employed,  the  title  to  every  estate  iu  the  five  western 
counties  was  now  called  in  question.  The  "  Commissioners  tg 
Inquire  into  Defective  Titles"  were  let  loose  upon  the  devoted 
Province,  with  Sir  William  Parsons  at  their  head,  and  the 
King's  title  to  the  whole  of  Mayo,  Sligo  and  Roscommon,  was 
found  by  packed,  bribed,  or  intimidated  juries  ;  the  grand  jury 
of  Galway,  having  refused  to  find  a  similar  verdict,  were  sum- 
moned to  the  Court  of  Castle  Chamber,  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine 
of  £4,000  each  to  the  Crown,  and  the  Sheriff  that  empanneled 
them  a  fine  of  £1,000.  The  lawyers  who  pleaded  for  the  actual 
proprietors  were  stripped  of  their  gowns,  the  sheriff  died  in 
prison,  and  the  work  of  spoliation  proceeded.  The  young 
Earl  of  Ormond  was  glad  to  compound  for  a  portion  of  his 
estates ;  the  Earl  of  Kildare  was  committed  to  prison  for  re- 
fusing a  similar  composition  ;  the  Earl  of  Cork  was  compelled 
to  pay  a  heavy  fine  for  his  intrusion  into  lands  originally 
granted  to  the  Church;  the  O'Byrnes  of  Wicklow  commuted 
for  £15,000,  and  the  London  Companies,  for  their  Derry  estates, 
paid  no  less  than  £70,000 :  a  forced  contribution  for  which 
those  frugal  citizens  never  forgave  the  thorough-going  Deputy. 
By  these  means,  and  others  less  violent,  such  as  bounties  to 
the  linen  trade,  he  raised  the  annual  revenue  of  the  kingdom 
to  £80,000  a  year,  and  was  enabled  to  embody  for  the  King's 
service  an  army  of  10,000  foot  and  1,000  horse. 

These  arbitrary  measures  were  entirely  in  consonance  with 
the  wishes  of  Charles.  In  a  visit  to  England  in  1636,  the 
King  assured  Strafford  personally  of  his  cordial  approbation 
of  all  he  had  done,  encouraged  him  to  proceed  fearlessly  in 
the  same  course,  and  conferred  on  him  the  higher  rank  o/ 


486  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

Lord  Lieutenant.  Three  years  later,  on  the  first  rumor  of  • 
Scottish  invasion  of  England,  Strafford  was  enabled  to  remit 
his  master  £30,000  from  the  Irish  Treasury,  and  to  tender  the 
services  of  the  Anglo-Irish  army,  as  he  thought  they  could  be 
eafely  dispensed  with  by  the  country  in  which  they  had  been 
thus  far  recruited  and  maintained. 


CHAPTER  m. 

LORD  STRAFFOBD'S  IMPEACHMENT  AND  EXECUTION — PARLIA- 
MENT OF  1639-'41 — THE  INSURRECTION  OP  1641 — THB  IBI8H 
ABROAD. 

THE  tragic  end  of  the  despot,  whose  administration  we  have 
sketched,  was  now  rapidly  approaching.  When  he  deserted 
the  popular  ranks  in  the  English  House  of  Commons  for  a 
Peerage  and  the  government  of  Ireland,  the  fearless  Pym  pro- 
phetically remarked,  "  though  you  have  left  us,  I  will  not 
leave  you  while  your  head  is  on  your  shoulders."  Yet,  although 
conscious  of  having  left  able  and  vigilant  enemies  behind  him 
in  England,  Strafford  proceeded  in  his  Irish  administration 
as  if  he  scomed  to  conciliate  the  feelings  or  interests  of  any 
order  of  men.  By  the  highest  nobility,  as  well  as  the  hum- 
blest of  the  mechanic  class,  his  will  was  to  be  received  as  law  ; 
BO  that  neither  in  Church,  nor  in  State,  might  any  man  express 
even  the  most  guarded  doubt  as  to  its  infallibility.  Lord 
Mountnorris,  for  example,  having  dropped  a  casual,  and  alto- 
gether innocent  remark  at  the  Chancellor's  table  on  the  private 
habits  of  the  Deputy,  was  brought  to  trial  by  court  martial 
on  a  charge  of  mutiny,  and  sentenced  to  military  execution. 
Though  he  was  not  actually  put  to  death,  he  underwent  a  long 
and  rigorous  imprisonment,  and  at  length  was  liberated  without 
apology  or  satisfaction.  If  they  were  not  so  fully  authenti- 
cated the  particulars  of  this  outrageous  case  would  hardly  be 
credible 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  481 

The  examples  of  resistance  to  arbitrary  power,  which  for 
gome  years  had  been  shown  by  both  England  and  Scotland, 
were  not  thrown  away  upon  the  still  worse  used  Irish.  During 
the  seven  years  of  Stafford's  iron  rule,  Hampden  had  resisted 
the  collection  of  ship  money,  Cromwell  had  begun  to  figure  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
was  established  in  Scotland,  and  the  Scots  had  twice  entered 
England  in  arms  to  seal  with  their  blood,  if  need  were,  their 
opposition  to  an  episcopal  establishment  of  religion.  It  was 
in  1640,  upon  the  occasion  of  their  second  invasion,  that 
Strafford  was  recalled  from  Ireland  to  assume  command  of  the 
royal  forces  in  the  North  of  England.  After  a  single  indecisive 
campaign,  the  King  entertained  Hie  overtures  of  the  Cove 
nauters,  and  the  memorable  Long  Parliament  having  met  in 
November,  one  of  its  first  acts  was  the  impeachment  of  Straf- 
ford for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  The  chief  articles 
against  him  related  to  his  administration  of  Irish  affairs,  and 
were  sustained  by  delegates  from  the  Irish  House  of  Commons, 
sent  over  for  that  purpose :  the  whole  of  the  trial  deserves  to 
be  closely  examined  by  every  one  interested  in  the  constitu- 
tional history  of  England  and  Ireland. 

A  third  Parliament,  known  as  the  14th,  15th  and  16th 
Charles  I.,  met  at  Dublin  on  the  20th  March,  1639,  was  pro- 
rogued till  June,  and  adjourned  till  October.  Yielding  the 
point  so  successfully  resisted  in  1613,  its  sittings  were  held  in 
the  Castle,  surrounded  by  the  viceregal  guard.  With  one 
exception,  the  acts  passed  in  its  first  session  were  of  little 
importance,  relating  only  to  the  allotment  of  glebe  lands  and 
the  payment  of  twentieths.  The  exception,  which  followed 
the  voting  of  four  entire  subsidies  to  the  King,  was  an  Act 
ordaining  "  that  this  Parliament  shall  not  determine  by  his 
Majesty's  assent  to  this  and  other  Bills."  A  similar  statute  had 
be«n  passed  in  1635,  but  was  wholly  disregarded  by  Strafford, 
who  no  doubt  meant  to  take  precisely  the  same  course  in  the 
present  instance.  The  members  of  this  Assembly  have  been 
severely  condemned  by  modern  writers  for  passing  a  high 
eulogium  upon  Strafford  in  their  first  session  and  reversing  it 
after  his  fall.  But  this  censure  Is  not  well  founded.  Th« 


488  POPULAR  HISTORY   Of   IRELAND. 

eulogium  was  introduced  by  the  Castle  party  in  the  Lords,  at 
part  of  the  preamble  to  the  Supply  Bill,  which,  on  being 
returned  to  the  Common*],  could  only  be  rejected  in  toto,  not 
amended  —  a  proceeding  in  the  last  degree  revolutionary 
But  those  who  dissented  from  that  ingenious  device,  at  the  next 
session  of  the  House,  took  care  to  have  their  protest  entered  on 
the  journals  and  a  copy  of  it  despatched  to  the  King.  Thia 
second  proceeding  took  place  in  February,  1640,  and  as  th«j 
Lord  Lieutenant  was  not  arraigned  till  the  month  of  November 
following,  the  usual  denunciations  of  the  Irish  members  are 
altogether  undeserved.  At  no  period  of  his  fortune  was  the 
Earl  more  formidable  as  an  enemy  than  at  the  very  moment 
the  Protest  against  "  his  manner  of  government"  was  ordered 
"to  be  entered  among  the  Ordinances"  of  the  Commons  of 
Ireland.  Nor  did  this  Parliament  confine  itself  to  mere  pro- 
testations against  the  abuses  of  executive  power.  At  the  very 
opening  of  the  second  session,  on  the  20th  of  January,  they 
appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on  the  King  in  England,  with 
instructions  to  solicit  a  bill  in  explanation  of  Poyning's  law, 
another  enabling  them  to  originate  bills  in  Committee  of  their 
own  House,  a  right  taken  away  by  that  law,  and  to  ask  the 
King's  consent  to  the  regulation  of  the  courts  of  law,  the  col- 
lecting of  the  revenue,  and  the  quartering  of  soldiers,  by 
statute  instead  of  by  Orders  in  Council.  On  the  16th  of 
February  the  House  submitted  a  set  of  queries  to  the  Judges, 
the  nature  of  which  may  be  inferred  from  the  first  question, 
viz.  :  "  Whether  the  subjects  of  this  Kingdom  be  a  free 
people,  and  to  be  governed  only  by  the  common  law  of 
England,  and  statutes  passed  in  this  Kingdom  1"  When  the 
answers  received  were  deemed  insufficient,  the  House  itself, 
turning  th»  queries  into  the  form  of  resolutions,  proceeded  to 
vote  on  them,  one  by  one,  affirming  in  every  point  the  righto, 
th*»  liberties,  and  the  privileges  of  their  constituents. 

The  impeachment  and  attainder  of  Straffbrd  occupied  the 
great  pait  of  March  and  April,  1641,  and  throughout  those 
months  the  delegates  from  Ireland  assisted  at  the  pleadings  in 
Wostmi:.*ter  Hall  and  the  debates  in  the  English  Parliament. 
The  Houses  at  Dublin  were  themselves  occupied  in  a  similar 


POPULAB   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  489 

manner.  Towards  the  end  of  February  articles  of  impeach- 
toent  were  drawn  up  against  the  Lord  C  hancellor,  Bolton,  Dl 
Bramhall,  Bishop  of  Derry  Chief-Justice  Lowther,  and  Sir 
George  Radciiff'e,  for  conspiring  with  Strafford  to  subvert  the 
constitution  and  laws,  and  to  introduce  an  arbitrary  and  tyran- 
nical government.  In  March,  the  King's  letter  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  Parliament  was  laid  before  the  Commons,  and  on 
the  3d  of  April,  his  further  letter,  declaring  that  all  his  ma- 
jesty's subjects  of  Ireland  "  shall,  from  henceforth,  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  the  said  graces  [of  1628]  according  to  the  true  in- 
tent thereof."  By  the  end  of  May  the  Judges,  not  under  im- 
peachment, sent  in  their  answers  to  the  Queries  of  the  Com" 
mons,  which  answers  were  voted  insufficient,  and  Mr.  Patrick 
Darcy,  Member  for  Navan,  was  appointed  to  serve  as  Procula- 
tor  at  a  Conference  with  the  Lords,  held  on  the  9th  of  June, 
"  in  the  dining-room  of  the  Castle,"  in  order  to  set  forth  the 
insufficiency  of  such  replies.  The  learned  and  elaborate  ar- 
gument of  Darcy  was  ordered  to  be  printed  by  the  House ;  and 
on  the  26th  day  of  July,  previous  to  their  prorogation,  they 
resolved  unanimously,  that  the  subjects  of  Ireland  "  were  a 
free  people,  to  be  governed  only  by  the  common  law  of  Eng- 
land, and  statutes  made  and  established  in  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland,  and  according  to  the  lawful  custom  used  in  the  same." 
This  was  the  last  act  of  this  memorable  session ;  the  great 
northern  insurrection  in  October  having,  of  course,  prevented 
subsequent  sessions  from  being  held.  Constitutional  agitators 
in  modern  times  have  been  apt  to  select  their  examples  of  a 
wise  and  patriotic  parliamentary  conduct  from  the  opposition 
to  the  Act  of  Union  and  the  famous  struggles  of  the  last  cen- 
tury ;  but  whoever  has  looked  into  such  records  as  remain  to 
us  of  the  15th  and  16th  of  Charles  First,  and  the  debates  on 
the  impeachment  of  Lord  Chancellor  Bolton,  will,  in  my 
opinion,  be  prepared  to  admit,  that  at  no  period  whatever  was 
constitutional  law  more  ably  expounded  in  Ireland  than  in 
the  sessions  of  1640  and  1641 ;  and  that  not  only  the  principle! 
of  Swift  and  of  Molyneux  had  a  triumph  in  1782,  but  th« 
older  doctrines  also  of  Sir  Ralph  Keliy,  Audluy  Mervin,  and 
Patrick  Darcy. 


*90  POPULAR  HI8TORT   OF   IRELAND. 

Strafford'fl  Deputy,  Sir  Christopher  Wandesford,  having 
died  before  the  close  of  1640,  the  King  appointed  Robert, 
Lord  Dillon,  a  liberal  Protestant,  and  Sir  William  Parsons, 
Lords  Justices.  But  the  pressure  of  Puritan  influence  in  Eng- 
land compelled  him  in  a  short  time  to  remove  Dillon  and  sub- 
stitute Sir  John  Borlace,  Master  of  the  Ordnance — a  mere 
soldier— in  point  of  fanaticism  a  fitting  colleague  for  Par- 
sons. The  prorogation  of  Parliament  soon  gave  these  admi- 
nistrators opportunities  to  exhibit  the  spirit  in  which  they 
proposed  to  carry  on  the  government.  When  at  a  public 
entertainment  in  the  capital  Parsons  openly  declared  that  in 
twelve  months  more  no  Catholic  should  be  seen  in  Ireland,  it 
was  naturally  inferred  that  the  Lord  Justice  spoke  not  merely 
for  himself  but  for  the  growing  party  of  the  English  Puritans 
and  Scottish  Covenanters.  The  latter  had  repeatedly  avowed 
that  they  never  would  lay  down  their  arms  until  they  had 
wrought  the  extirpation  of  Popery,  and  Mr.  Pym,  the  Puritan 
leader  in  England,  had  openly  declared  that  his  party  in- 
tended not  to  leave  a  priest  in  Ireland.  The  infatuation  of 
the  unfortunate  Charles  in  entrusting  at  such  a  moment  the 
supreme  power,  civil  and  military,  to  two  of  the  devoted  par- 
fcizans  of  his  deadliest  enemies,  could  not  fail  to  arouse  the 
fears  of  all  who  felt  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  fanatical 
party,  either  by  race  or  by  religion. 

The  aspirations  of  the  chief  men  among  the  old  Irish  for 
entire  freedom  of  worship,  their  hopes  of  recovering  at  least  a 
portion  of  their  estates,  the  example  of  the  Scots,  who  had 
successfully  upheld  both  their  Church  and  nation  against  all 
attempts  at  English  supremacy,  the  dangers  that  pressed,  and 
the  fears  that  overhung  them,  drove  many  of  the  very  first 
abilities  and  noblest  characters  into  the  conspiracy  which  ex- 
ploded with  such  terriflc  energy  on  the  23d  of  October,  Ifill. 
The  project,  though  matured  on  Irish  soil,  was  first  conceived 
among  the  exiled  Catholics,  who  were  to  be  found  at  that  day 
in  all  the  schools  and  camps  of  Spain,  Italy,  France  and  the 
Netherlands.  Philip  III.  had  an  Irish  legion,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Henry  O'Neil,  son  of  Tyrone,  which,  after  his  death 
was  transferred  to  his  brother  John.  In  this  legion,  Oweu  Ivua 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  491 

O'Neil,  nephew  of  Tyrone,  learned  the  art  of  war,  and  rose  to 
the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel.  The  number  of  Irish  serving 
abroad  had  steadily  increased  after  1628,  when  a  license  of 
enlistment  was  granted  by  the  King  James.  An  English  emis- 
sary, evidently  well-informed,  was  enabled  to  report,  about 
the  year  1630,  that  there  were  in  the  service  of  the  Archdu- 
chess Isabella,  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands  alone,  "  100  Irish 
officers  able  to  command  companies,  and  20  fit  to  be  colonels." 
The  names  of  many  others  are  given  as  men  of  noted  courage, 
good  engineers,  and  "  well-beloved"  captains,  both  Milesiam 
and  Anglo-Irish,  residing  at  Lisbon,  Florence,  Milan  and 
Naples.  The  emissary  adds  that  they  had  long  been  provid- 
ing arms  for  an  attempt  upon  Ireland,  "and  had  in  readiness 
5  or  6,000  arms  laid  up  in  Antwerp  for  that  purpose,  bought 
out  of  the  deduction  of  their  monthly  pay."  After  the  death 
of  the  Archduchess,  in  1633,  an  attempt  was  made  by  the 
Franco-Dutch,  under  Prince  Maurice  and  Marshal  Chatillon, 
to  separate  the  Belgian  Provinces  from  Spain.  In  the  san- 
guinary battle  at  Avlen  victory  declared  for  the  French,  and 
on  their  junction  with  Prince  Maurice  town  after  town  surren- 
dered to  their  arms.  The  first  successful  stand  against  them 
was  made  at  Louvain,  defended  by  4,000  Belgians,  Walloons, 
Spaniards  and  Irish ;  the  Irish,  1,000  strong,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Preston,  of  the  Gormanstown  family,  greatly 
distinguished  themselves.  The  siege  was  raised  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1635,  and  Belgium  was  saved  for  that  time  to  Philip  IV. 
At  the  capture  of  Breda,  in  1637,  the  Irish  were  again  honora- 
bly conspicuous,  and  yet  more  so  in  the  successful  defence  of 
Arras,  the  capital  of  Artois,  three  years  later.  Not  yet 
strengthened  by  the  citadel  of  Vauban,  this  ancient  Burgun- 
dian  city,  famous  for  its  cathedral  and  its  manufactures, 
dear  to  the  Spaniards  as  one  of  the  conquests  of  Charles 
Vth,  was  a  vital  point  in  the  campaign  of  1640.  Be- 
sieged by  the  Prench,  under  Marshal  Millerie,  it  held  out  fcr 
several  weeks  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Owen  Roe 
O'Neil.  The  King  of  France  lying  at  Amiens,  within  conve- 
nient distance,  took  care  that  the  besiegers  wanted  for  nothing  ; 
while  the  Prince-Cardinal,  Ferdinand,  the  successor  of  the 


4'J2  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

Archduchess  in  the  government,  marched  to  its  relief  at  the 
head  of  his  main  force  with  the  Imperialists,  under  Launoy, 
and  the  troops  of  the  Duke  of  Lorrain,  commanded  by  that 
Prince  in  person.  In  an  attack  on  the  French  lines  the  Allies 
were  beaten  off  with  loss,  and  the  brave  commander  was  left 
again  unsuccored  in  the  face  of  his  powerful  assailant.  Sub- 
sequently Don  Philip  de  Silva,  General  of  the  Horse  to  the 
Prince  Cardinal,  was  despatched  to  its  relief,  but  failed  to  effect 
anything ;  a  failure  for  which  he  was  court  martial'd,  but 
acquitted.  The  defenders,  after  exhausting  every  resource, 
finally  surrendered  the  place  on  honorable  terms,  and  marched 
out  covered  with  glory.  These  stirring  events,  chronicled 
in  prose  and  verse  at  home,  rekindled  the  martial  ardor  which 
had  slumbered  since  the  disastrous  day  of  Einsale. 

In  the  ecclesiastics  who  shared  their  banishment,  the  military 
exiles  had  a  voluntary  diplomatic  corps  who  lost  no  opportunity 
of  advancing  the  common  cause.  At  Rome,  their  chief  agent 
was  Father  Luke  Wadding,  founder  of  Saint  Isidore's,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  theologians  and  scholars  of  his  age. 
Through  the  friendship  of  Gregory  XV.  and  Urban  VIII., 
many  Catholic  princes  became  deeply  interested  in  the  reli- 
gious wars  which  the  Irish  of  the  previous  ages  had  so  bravely 
waged,  and  which  their  descendants  were  now  so  anxious  to 
renew.  Cardinal  Richelieu — who  wielded  a  power  greater 
than  that  of  Kings — had  favorably  entertained  a  project  of  in? 
vasion  submitted  to  him  by  the  son  of  Hugh  O'Neil,  a  chief 
who,  while  living,  was  naturally  regarded  by  the  exiles  as  their 
future  leader. 

To  prepare  the  country  for  such  an  invasion  (if  the  return 
of  men  to  their  own  country  can  be  called  by  that  name),  it 
was  necessary  to  find  an  agent  with  talents  for  organization, 
and  an  undoubted  title  to  credibility  and  confidence.  Thii 
agent  was  fortunately  found  in  the  person  of  Rory  or  Roger 
O'Moore,  the  representative  of  the  ancient  chiefs  of  Leix, 
who  had  grown  up  at  the  Spanish  Court  as  the  friend  and 
companion  of  the  O'Neils.  O'Moore  was  then  in  the  prime  of 
life,  of  handsome  person  and  most  seductive  manners ;  his 
knowledge  of  character  was  profound  ;  hU  zeal  for  the  Catho* 


BISTORT    OP    IRELAND.  493 

lie  cause,  intense ;  his  personal  probity,  honor  and  courage, 
undoubted.  The  precise  date  of  O'Moore's  arrival  in  Ireland 
is  not  given  in  any  of  the  cotemporary  accounts,  but  he  seems 
to  have  been  resident  in  tho  country  some  time  previous  to  hia 
appearance  in  public  life,  as  he  is  familiarly  spoken  of  by  his 
English  cotemporariee  as  "  Mr.  Roger  Moore  of  Ballynagh.' 
During  the  Parliamentary  session  of  1640  he  took  lodgings  it 
Dublin,  where  he  succeeded  in  enlisting  in  his  plans  Conner 
Maguiro,  Lord  Enniskillen,  Philip  O'Reilly,  one-  of  the  room- 
bnrs  for  tho  county  of  Cavan,  Costelloe  McMahon,  and  Thor- 
logh  O'Neil,  all  persons  of  great  influence  in  Ulster.  During 
tUe  ea^uing  assizes  in  the  Northern  Province  he  visited  several 
county  towns,  where  in  the  crowd  of  suitors  and  defendants 
he  could,  without  attracting  special  not'ce,  meet  and  converse 
with  those  he  desired  to  gain  over.  On  this  tour  he  received 
the  important  accession  of  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil  of  Kinnaird, 
in  Tyrone,  Sir  Con  Mfigennia  of  Down,  Colonel  Hugh 
McMahon  of  Monaghan,  and  Dr.  Heber  McMahon,  Adminis- 
trator of  Clogher.  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil,  the  most  considerable 
man  of  his  name  tolerated  in  Ulster,  was  looked  upon 
as  the  greatest  acquisition,  and  at  his  castle  of  Kinnaird 
his  associates  from  tho  neighboring  counties,  under  a 
variety  of  pretexts,  contrived  frequently  to  meet.  From 
Ulster,  the  indefatigable  O'Moore  carried  the  threads  of  the 
conspiracy  into  Connaught  with  equal  success,  finding  both 
among  the  nobility  and  clergy  many  adherents.  In  Leinster, 
among  the  Anglo-Irish,  he  experienced  the  greatest  timidity 
and  indifference,  but  an  unforeseen  circumstance  threw  into 
hia  hands  a  powerful  lever,  to  move  that  province.  This  was 
the  permission  granted  by  the  King  to  the  native  regiments, 
embodied  by  Strafford  to  enter  into  the  Spanish  service,  if 
they  «o  desired.  His  English  Parliament  made  no  demur  to 
the  arrangement,  which  would  rid  the  island  of  some  thousands 
of  disciplined  Catholics,  but  several  of  their  officers,  under 
the  inspiration  of  O'Moore,  kept  their  companies  together, 
delaying  their  departure  from  month  to  month.  Among  these 
wers  Sir  James  Dillon,  Colonel  Plunfcett,  Colonel  Byrne,  and 
42 


494  POPUIJLR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

Captain  Fox,  who,  with  O'Moore,  formed  the  first  directing 
body  of  the  Confederates  in  Leinster. 

lu  May,  1641,  Captain  Neil  O'Neil  arrived  from  the  Nether- 
lands with  an  urgent  request  from  John,  Earl  of  Tyrone,  to 
all  his  clansmen  to  prepare  for  a  general  insurrection.  Ho 
also  brought  them  the  cheering  news  that  Cardinal  Richelieu- 
then  at  the  summit  of  his  greatness — had  promised  the  exiles 
arms,  money,  and  means  of  transport.  He  was  sent  back, 
almost  immediately,  with  the  reply  of  Sir  Phelim,  O'Moore 
and  their  friends,  that  they  would  be  prepared  to  take  tbe 
field  a  few  days  before  or  after  the  festival  of  All  Hallows-  - 
the  1st  of  November.  The  death  of  Earl  John,  shortly  after- 
xvnrd?,  though  it  grieved  the  Confederates,  wrought  no  change 
i;.  their  jlniis.  In  his  cousin-gerrnain,  the  distinguished  de- 
fender cif  Arras,  they  reposed  equal  confidence,  and  their  confi- 
(.lenee  could  not  have  been  more  worthily  bestowed.  ' 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  INSURRECTION  OF  1641. 

THE  plan  agreed  upon  by  the  Confederates  included  four 
main  features.  I.  A  rising  after  the  harvest  was  gathered  in, 
and  a  campaign  during  the  winter  months,  when  supplies  from 
England  were  most  difficult  to  be  obtained  by  their  enemies. 
II.  A  simultaneous  attack  on  one  and  the  same  day  or  night 
on  all  the  fortresses  within  reach  of  their  friends.  III.  To 
Biirprise  the  Castle  of  Dublin  which  was  said  to  contain  arms 
for  12,000  men.  IV.  Aid  in  officers,  munitions,  and  money 
from  abroad.  All  the  details  of  this  project  were  carried  suc- 
cessfully into  effect,  except  the  seizure  of  Dublin  Castle — the 
most  difficult  as  it  would  have  been  the  most  decisive  blow  to 
strike 

Towards  the  end  of  August  a  meeting  of  those  who  could 
moat  conveniently  attend  was  held  in  Dublin.  There  wert 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  495 

present  0'M<  ore  and  Maguire,  of  the  civilians,  and  Colonels 
Plunkett,  Byrne,  and  McMahon,  of  the  army.  At  this  meek- 
ing  the  last  week  of  October,  or  first  of  November,  was  fixed 
upon  as  the  time  to  rise ;  subsequently  Saturday,  the  23d  of 
the  first-named  month,  a  market  day  in  the  capital,  was  se- 
lected. The  northern  movements  were  to  be  arranged  with 
Sir  Phelim  O'Neil,  while  McMahon,  Plunkett,  and  Byrne,  with 
200  picked  men,  were  to  surprise  the  Castle  guard — consisting 
of  only  a  few  pensioners  and  40  halbediers — turn  the  guns 
upon  the  city  to  intimidate  the  Puritan  party,  and  thus  make 
sure  of  Dublin ;  O'Moore,  Lord  Maguire,  and  other  civilians, 
were  to  be  in  town,  in  order  to  direct  the  next  steps  to  be 
taken.  As  the  day  approached,  the  arrangements  went  on 
with  perfect  secresy  but  with  perfect  success.  On  the  22d  of 
October  half  the  chosen  band  were  in  waiting,  and  the  remain- 
der were  expected  in  during  the  night.  Some  hundreds  of 
persons,  in  and  about  Dublin,  and  many  thousands  throughout 
the  country,  must  have  been  in  possession  of  that  momentous 
secret,  yet  it  was  by  the  mere  accident  of  trusting  a  drunken 
dependant  out  of  sight,  that  the  first  knowledge  of  the  plot 
was  conveyed  to  the  Lords  Justices  on  the  very  eve  of  its 
execution. 

Owen  O'Connolly,  the  informant  on  this  occasion,  was  one 
of  those  ruffling  squires  or  henchmen,  who  accompanied  gen- 
tlemen of  fortune,  in  that  age,  to  take  part  in  their  quarrels, 
and  carry  their  confidential  messages.  That  he  was  not  an 
ordinary  domestic  servant,  we  may  learn  from  the  fact  of  his 
carrying  a  sword,  after  the  custom  of  the  class  to  which  we 
have  assigned  him.  At  this  period  he  was  in  the  service  of 
Sir  John  Clotworthy,  one  of  the  most  violent  of  the  Puritan 
Undertakers,  and  had  conformed  to  the  established  religion. 
Through  what  recklessness,  or  ignorance  of  his  true  character, 
no  came  to  be  invited  by  Colonel  Hugh  McMahon  to  his  lodg- 
ings, and  there,  on  the  evening  of  the  22d,  entrusted  with  a 
knowledge  of  next  day's  plans,  we  have  now  no  means  of  de- 
ciding. O'Connolly's  information,  as  tendered  to  the  Justices, 
states  that  on  hearing  of  the  proposed  attack  on  the  Castle,  he 
pretended  an  occasion  to  withdraw,  leaving  his  sword  in. 


*?€  POPTJLAR   HTSTORT   OP   IRELAND. 

McMahon's  room  to  avoid  suspicion,  and  that  aftei  jumping 
over  fences  and  palings,  he  made  his  way  from  the  north  side 
of  the  city  to  Sir  William  Parsons  at  the  Castle.  Parsons  at 
first  discredited  the  tale,  which  O'Connolly  (who  was  in  liquor) 
told  in  a  confused  and  rambling  manner,  but  he  finally  decided 
to  consult  his  colleague,  Borlase,  by  whom  some  of  the  Coun- 
cil were  summoned,  the  witness's  deposition  taken  down, 
orders  issued  to  double  the  guard,  and  officers  despatched, 
who  arrested  McMahon  at  his  lodgings.  When  McMahon  came 
to  be  examined  before  the  Council,  it  was  already  the  morning 
of  the  23d ;  he  boldly  avowed  his  own  part  in  the  plot,  and 
declared  that  what  was  that  day  to  be  done  was  now  beyond 
the  power  of  man  to  prevent.  He  was  committed  close  pri- 
soner to  the  Castle  where  he  had  hoped  to  command,  and 
search  was  made  for  the  other  leaders  in  town.  Maguire  was 
captured  the  ne»t  morning,  and  shared  McMahon's  captivity; 
but  O'Moore,  Plunkett,  and  Byrne  succeeded  in  escaping  out 
of  the  city.  O'Connolly  was  amply  rewarded  in  lands  and 
money ;  and  we  hear  of  him  once  afterwards,  with  the  title  of 
Colonel,  in  the  Parliamentary  army. 

As  McMahon  had  declared  to  the  Justices,  the  rising  wai 
now  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  prevent.  In  Ulster,  by  stra- 
tagem, surprise,  or  force,  the  forte  of  Charlemont  and  Mount- 
joy,  and  the  town  of  Dungannon,  were  seized  on  the  night  of 
the  22d  by  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil  or  his  lieutenants  ;  on  the 
next  day  Sir  Connor  Magennis  took  the  town  of  Newry,  the 
McMahons  possessed  themselves  of  Carrickmacross  and  Castle- 
blaney,  the  O'Hanlons  Tandragee,  while  Philip  O'Reilly  and 
Roger  Maguire  raised  Cavan  and  Fermanagh.  A  proclamation 
of  the  northern  leaders  appeared  the  same  day,  dated  from  Dun- 
gannon,  setting  forth  their  "  true  intent  and  meaning"  to  be, 
not  hostility  to  his  Majesty  the  King,  "  nor  to  any  of  his  sub- 
jects, neither  English,  nor  Scotch ;  but  only  for  the  defence 
and  liberty  of  ourselves  and  the  Irish  natives  of  this  kingdom." 
A  more  elaborate  manifesto  appeared  shortly  afterwards  from 
the  pen  of  Bory  O'Moore,  in  which  the  oppressions  of  the 
Catholics  for  conscience'  sake  were  detailed,  th«  King'g 
Intended  "  graces"  acknowledged,  and  their  frustration  by  thf 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  497 

malice  of  the  Puritan  party  exhibited  :  it  also  end  \avored  to 
•how  that  a  common  danger  threatened  the  Protestants  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  with  Roman  Catholics,  and  asserted  in  the 
Strongest  terms  the  devotion  of  the  Catholics  to  the  Crown. 
In  the  same  politic  and  tolerant  spirit,  Sir  Connor  Mageunis 
wrote  from  Newry  on  the  25th  to  the  officers  commanding  at 
Down.  "  We  are,"  he  wrote,  "  for  our  lives  and  liberties.  We 
desire  no  blood  to  be  shed,  but  if  you  mean  to  shed  our  blood, 
be  sure  we  shall  be  as  ready  as  you  for  that  purpose."  This 
threat  of  retaliation,  so  customary  in  all  wars,  was  made  on 
the  third  day  of  the  rising,  and  refers  wholly  to  future  contin 
gencies ;  the  monstrous  fictions  which  were  afterwards  circu- 
lated of  a  wholesale  massacre  committed  on  the  23d  were  not 
as  yet  invented,  nor  does  any  public  document  or  private  let- 
ter, written  in  Ireland  in  the  last  week  of  October,  or  during 
the  first  days  of  November,  so  much  as  allude  to  those  tales  of 
blood  and  horror,  afterwards  so  industriously  circulated,  and 
BO  greedily  swallowed. 

Fully  aroused  from  their  lethargy  by  McMahon's  declaration, 
the  Lords  Justices  acted  with  considerable  vigor.  Dublin  was 
declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  siege  ;  courts  martial  were  estab- 
lished ;  arms  were  distributed  to  the  Protestant  citizens,  and 
some  Catholics  ;  and  all  strangers  were  ordered  to  quit  the 
city  under  pain  of  death.  Sir  Francis  Willoughby,  Governor 
of  Galway,  who  arrived  on  the  night  of  the  22d,  was  entrusted 
with  the  command  of  the  Castle,  Sir  Charles  Coote  was  appointed 
Military  Governor  of  the  city,  and  the  Earl,  afterwards  Duke 
of  Ormond,  was  summoned  from  Carrick-on-Suir  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  army.  As  Coote  played  a  very  conspicuous  part 
in  the  opening  scenes  of  this  war,  and  Ormond  till  its  close,  it 
may  be  well  to  describe  them  both,  more  particularly  to  the 
reader : 

Sir  Charles  Coote,  one  of  the  first  Baronets  of  Ireland,  like 
Parsons,  Boyle,  Chichester,  and  other  Englishmen,  had  come 
over  to  Ireland  during  the  war  against  Tyrone,  in  quest  of 
fortune.  His  first  employments  were  in  Connaught,  where  ha 
filled  the  offices  of  Provost-Marshal  and  Vice-Governor  in  the 
reign  of  James  I.  His  success  as  an  Undertaker  entitles  bin 


498  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

to  rank  with  the  fortunate  adventurers  we  have  mentioned ; 
in  Roscommon,  Sligo,  Leitrim,  Queen's  and  other  counties, 
his  possessions  and  privileges  raised  him  to  the  rank  of  the 
richest  subjects  of  his  time.  In  1640  he  was  a  colonel  of  foot, 
with  the  estates  of  a  Prince  and  the  habits  of  a  Provost-Mar- 
shal. His  reputation  for  ferocious  cruelty  has  survived  the 
remembrance  even  of  his  successful  plunder  of  other  people'a 
property ;  before  the  campaigns  of  Cromwell  there  was  no 
better  synonym  for  wanton  cruelty  than  the  name  of  Sir 
Charles  Coote. 

James  Butler,  Earl,  Marquis,  and  Duke  of  Ormond, 
deservedly  ranks  amongst  the  principal  statesmen  of  his  time. 
During  a  public  career  of  more  than  half  a  century  his  con- 
duct in  many  eminent  offices  of  trust  was  distinguished  by 
supreme  ability,  life-long  firmness  and  consistency.  As  a 
courtier  of  the  House  of  Stuart,  it  was  impossible  that  he 
should  have  served  and  satisfied  both  Charleses  without  par- 
ticipating in  many  indefensible  acts  of  government,  and 
originating  some  of  them.  Yet  judged,  not  from  the  Irish  but 
the  Imperial  point  of  view,  not  by  an  abstract  standard  but 
by  the  public  morality  of  his  age,  he  will  be  found  fairly 
deserving  of  the  title  of  "the  great  Duke"  bestowed  on  him 
during  his  lifetime.  When  summoned  by  the  Lords  Justices  to 
their  assistance  in  1641,  he  was  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  his 
age,  and  had  so  far  only  distinguished  himself  in  political  life 
as  the  friend  of  the  late  Lord  Strafford.  He  had,  however; 
the  good  fortune  to  restore  in  his  own  person  the  estates  ot 
his  family,  notwithstanding  that  they  were  granted  in  great 
part  to  others  by  King  James ;  his  attachment  to  the  causn 
of  King  Charles  was  very  naturally  augumented  by  the  fact 
that  the  partiality  of  that  Prince  and  his  ill-fated  favorite  had 
»nabled  him  to  retrieve  both  the  hereditary  wealth  and  the 
high  political  influence  which  formerly  belonged  to  the 
Ormond  Butlers.  Such  an  ally  was  indispensable  to  the  Lord 
Justices  in  the  first  panic  of  the  insurrection ;  but  it  was  evi- 
dent to  near  observers  that  Ormond,  a  loyalist  and  a  church- 
man, could  not  long  act  in  concert  with  such  devoted  Puritani 
as  Parsons,  Borlase,  and  Coot*. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF    IRELAND.  499 

The  military  position  of  the  several  parties — there  were  at 
least  three — when  Ormond  arrived  at  Dublin,  in  the  first  week 
of  November,  may  be  thus  stated:  I.  In  Munster  and  Con- 
naught  there  was  but  a  single  troop  of  royal  horse,  each,  left 
as  a  guard  with  the  respective  Presidents,  St.  Leger  and 
Willoughby ;  in  Kilkenny,  Dublin  and  other  of  the  midland 
counties,  the  gentry,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  were  relied  OD 
to  raise  volunteers  for  their  own  defence ;  in  Dublin  there  had 
been  got  together  1,600  old  troops  ;  six  new  regiments  of  foot 
were  embodied  ;  and  thirteen  volunteer  companies  of  100 
each.  In  the  Castle  were  arms  and  ammunition  for  12,000 
men,  with  a  fine  train  of  field  artillery,  provided  by  Strafford 
for  his  campaign  in  the  north  of  England.  Ormor-d,  an 
Lieutenant-General,  had  thus  at  his  disposal,  in  one  fortnight 
after  the  insurrection  broke  out,  from  8,000  to  10,000  well 
fc  ppoiiited  men ;  his  advice  was  to  take  the  field  at  once  against 
the  northern  leaders  before  the  other  Provinces  became 
equally  inflamed.  But  his  judgment  was  overruled  by  the 
Justices,  who  would  only  consent,  while  awaiting  their  cue 
from  the  Long  Parliament,  to  throw  reinforcements  into 
Drogheda,  which  thus  became  their  outpost  towards  the 
north.  II.  In  Ulster  there  still  remained  in  the  possession  of 
"  the  Undertakers"  Enniskillen,  Derry,  the  Castles  of  Killeagh 
and  Crohan  in  Cavan,  Lisburn,  Belfast,  and  the  stronghold  of 
Carrickfergus,  garrisoned  by  the  regiments  of  Colonel  Chi- 
cheater  and  Lord  Conway.  King  Charles,  who  was  at  Edin- 
burgh endeavoring  to  conciliate  the  Scottish  Parliament  when 
news  of  the  Irish  rising  reached  him,  procured  the  instant 
despatch  of  1,500  men  to  Ulster,  and  authorized  Lords  Chi- 
chester,  Ardes  and  Clandeboy,  to  raise  new  regiments  from 
among  their  own  tenants.  The  force  thus  embodied — which 
may  be  called  from  its  prevailing  element  the  Scottish  army — 
cannot  have  numbered  less  than  6,000  foot,  and  the  propor- 
tionate number  of  horse.  III.  The  Irish  in  the  field  by  the 
first  of  November  are  stated  in  round  numbers  at  30,000  men 
iu  the  northern  counties  alone ;  but  the  whole  number  sup- 
plied with  arms  and  ammunition  could  not  have  reached  one- 
third  of  that  nominal  total.  Before  the  surprise  of  Charlemonl 


500  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

and  Mountjoy  forte,  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil  had  but  a  barrel  or  Iwo 
of  gunpowder  ;  the  stores  of  those  forts,  with  70  barrels  taken 
at  Newry  by  Magennis,  and  all  the  arms  captured  in  the 
simultaneous  attack,  which  at  the  outside  could  not  well 
exceed  4,000  or  6,000  stand — constituted  their  entire  equip- 
ment. One  of  Ormond's  chief  reasons  for  an  immediate  cam- 
pjign  in  the  North  was  to  prevent  them  having  time  to  get 
"  pikes  made" — which  shows  their  deficiency  even  in  that 
weapon.  Besides  this  defect  there  was  one,  if  possible,  still 
more  serious.  Sir  Phelim  was  a  civilian,  bred  to  the  profes- 
sion of  the  larw ;  Rory  O'Moore,  also,  had  never  seen  service  ; 
and  although  Colonel  Owen  O'Neil  and  others  had  promised  to 
join  them  "  at  fourteen  days'  notice,"  a  variety  of  accidents 
prevented  the  arrival  of  any  officer  of  distinction  during  the 
brief  remainder  of  that  year.  Sir  Phelim,  however,  boldly 
assumed  the  title  of  "  Lord  General  of  the  Catholic  Army  in 
Ulster,"  and  the  still  more  popular  title  with  the  Gaelic  speak- 
ing population  of  "  The  O'Noil." 

The  projected  winter  campaign,  after  the  first  week's  suc- 
cesses, did  not  turn  out  favorably  for  the  northern  Insurgents. 
The  beginning  of  November  was  marked  by  the  barbarous 
slaughter  committed  by  the  Scottish  garrison  of  Carrickfergus 
in  the  Island  Magee.  Three  thousand  persons  are  said  to  hava 
been  driven  into  the  fathomless  north  sea,  orer  the  clifft  of  tint 
island,  or  to  have  perished  by  the  sword.  The  ordinary  inha- 
bitants could  not  have  exceeded  one  tenth  as  many,  but  tho 
presence  of  so  large  a  number  may  be  accounted  for  by  the 
supposition  that  they  had  fled  from  the  mainland  across  th* 
peninsula,  which  ia  left  dry  at  low  water,  and  were  pursued  to 
their  last  refuge  by  the  infuriated  Covenanters.  From  this 
date  forward  until  the  accession  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neil  to  the 
command,  the  northern  war  assumed  a  ferocity  of  character 
foreign  to  the  nature  of  O'Moore,  O'Reilly  and  Magennis. 
That  Sir  Phelim  permitted,  if  he  did  not  sometimes  in  his 
gusta  of  stormy  passion  instigate,  those  acts  of  cruelty,  which 
have  stained  his  otherwise  honorable  conduct,  is  too  true;  but 
he  *too1  nlone  among  his  confederates  in  that  crime,  and  thai 
crime  stands  alone  in  his  character.  Brave  to  rashness  and 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF   iBELAND.  501 

disinterested  to  excess,  few  rebel  chiefs  ever  made  a  more 
heroic  end  out  of  a  more  deplorable  beginning. 

The  Irish  Parliament  which  was  to  have  met  on  the  16th  of 
November  was  indefinitely  prorogued  by  the  Lords  Justices, 
who  preferred  to  act  only  with  theii  chosen  quorum  of  Privy 
Councillors.  The  Catholic  Lords  of  the  Pale,  who  at  first  had 
arms  granted  for  their  retainers  out  of  the  public  stores,  were 
now  summoned  to  surrender  them  by  a  given  day ;  an  insult 
not  to  be  forgiven.  Lords  Dillon  and  Taafe,  then  deputies  to 
the  King,  were  seized  at  Ware  by  the  English  Puritans,  their 
papers  taken  from  them,  and  themselves  imprisoned.  O'Moore, 
whose  clansmen  had  recovered  Dunamase  and  other  strong- 
holds in  his  ancient  patrimony,  was  still  indefatigable  in  his 
propaganda  among  the  Anglo-Irish.  By  his  advice  Sir  Phelim 
inarched  to  besiege  Drogheda,  at  the  head  of  his  tumultuous 
bands.  On  the  way  southward  he  made  an  unsuccessful 
attack  upon  Lisburn,  where  he  lost  heavily;  on  the  24th  of 
November  he  took  possession  of  Mellifont  Abbey,  from  whose 
gate  the  aged  Tyrone  had  departed  in  tears,  twenty-five  years 
before.  From  Mellifont  he  proceeded  to  invest  Drogheda ;  Colo- 
ncl  Plunkett,  with  the  title  of  General,  being  the  sole  experi- 
enced officer  as  yet  engaged  in  his  ranks.  A  strongly  walled 
to-.vn  as  Drogheda  was,  well  manned,  and  easily  accessible 
from  the  sea,  cannot  be  carried  without  guns  and  engineers 
by  any  amount  of  physical  courage.  Whenever  the  Catholics 
were  fairly  matched  in  the  open  field,  they  were  generally 
successful,  as  at  Julianstown,  during  this  siege,  whore  one 
of  their  detachments  cut  off"  five  out  of  six  companies 
marching  from  Dublin  to  reinforce  the  town ;  but  though 
the  investment  was  compl«te,  the  vigilsnt  Governor,  Sir  Henry 
Tiehburne,  successfully  repulsed  the  assailants.  O'Moore, 
who  lay  between  Ardee  and  Dundaik  with  a  reserve  of 
2,000  men,  found  time  during  the  siege  to  continue  his  natu- 
ral career,  that  of  a  diplomatist.  T'je  Puritan  party,  from 
the  Lord  Justice  downwards,  were,  indeed,  every  day  hasten- 
ing that  union  of  Catholics  of  all  origins  which  the  founder  of 
the  Confederacy  so  ardently  desired  to  bring  about.  Their 
avowed  maxim  was  that  the  more  men  rebelled,  tho  mor« 


502  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

estates  there  would  be  to  confiscate.  In  Minister,  theii  chief 
instruments  were  the  aged  Earl  of  Cork,  still  insatiable  as  ever 
for  other  men's  possessions,  and  the  President  St.  Leger ;  in 
Leinster,  Sir  Charles  Coote.  Lord  Cork  prepared  1,100  indict 
ments  against  men  of  property  in  his  Province,  which  he  sent 
to  the  Speaker  of  the  Long  Parliament,  with  an  urgent  request 
that  they  might  be  returned  to  him,  with  authority  to  proceed 
against  the  parties  named,  as  outlaws.  In  Leinster,  4,000 
similar  indictments  were  found  in  the  course  of  two  days  by 
the  free  use  of  the  rack  with  witnesses.  Sir  John  Bead,  an 
officer  of  the  Kng's  Bedchamber,  and  Mr.  Barnwall,  of  Kil- 
brue,  a  gentleman  of  three  score  and  six,  were  among  those 
who  underwent  the  torture.  When  these  were  the  proceedings 
of  the  tribunals  in  peaceable  cities,  we  may  imagine  what 
must  have  been  the  excesses  of  the  soldiery  in  the  open 
country.  In  the  South  Sir  William  St.  Leger  directed  a  series 
of  murderous  raids  upon  the  peasantry  of  Cork,  which  at 
length  produced  their  natural  effect.  Lord  Muskerry  and 
other  leading  rescusants,  who  had  offered  their  services  to 
maintain  the  peace  of  the  Province,  were  driven  by  an  insult- 
ing refusal  to  combine  for  their  own  protection.  The  1,100 
Indictments  of  Lord  Cork  soon  swelled  their  ranks,  and  the 
capture  of  the  ancient  city  of  Cashel  by  Philip  O'Dwyer 
announced  the  insurrection  of  the  South.  Waterford  soon 
after  opened  its  gates  to  Colonel  Edmund  Butler ;  Wexford 
declared  for  the  Catholic  cause,  and  Kilkenny  surrendered  to 
Lord  Mountgarret.  In  Wicklow  Coote's  troopers  committed 
murders  such  as  had  not  been  equalled  since  the  days  of  tlie 
Pagan  Northmen.  Little  children  were  carried  aloft  writhing 
on  the  pikes  of  these  barbarians,  whose  worthy  commander 
confessed  that  "  he  liked  such  frolics."  Neither  age  nor  sex 
was  spared,  and  an  ecclesiastic  was  especially  certain  of 
instant  death.  Fathers  Higgins  and  White  of  Naas,  in  Kildare, 
were  given  up  by  Coote  to  these  "  lambs,"  though  each  had 
been  granted  a  safe  conduct  by  his  superior  officer,  Lord 
Ormond.  And  these  murders  were  taking  place  at  the  very 
time  when  the  Franciscans  and  Jesuits  of  Cashel  were  pro- 
tecting Dr.  Pullen,  the  Protestant  Chancellor  of  that  Cathedra] 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  503 

and  other  Protestant  prisoners;  while  also  the  Castle  of 
Cloughouter,  in  Cavan,  the  residence  of  Bishop  Bedell,  was 
crowded  with  Protestant  fugitives,  all  of  whom  were  carefully 
guarded  by  the  chivalrous  Philip  O'Reilly. 

At  length  the  Catholic  Lords  of  the  Pale  began  to  feel  the 
general  glow  of  an  outraged  people,  too  long  submissive  under 
every  species  of  provocation.  The  Lords  Justices  having  sum- 
moned them  to  attend  in  Dublin  on  the  8th  of  December  they 
met  at  Swords,  at  the  safe  distance  of  seven  miles,  and  sent  by 
letter  their  reasons  for  not  trusting  themselves  in  the  capital. 
To  the  allegations  in  this  letter  the  Justices  replied  by  procla- 
mation, denying  most  of  them,  and  repeating  their  summons  to 
Lords  Fingal,  Qormanstown,  Slane,  Dunsany,  Netterville,  LoutL 
and  Trimleston,  to  attend  in  Dublin  on  the  17th.  But  before 
the  17th  came,  as  if  to  ensure  the  defeat  of  their  own  summons, 
Coote  was  let  loose  upon  the  flourishing  villages  of  Fingal,  and 
the  flames  kindled  by  his  men  might  easily  be  discovered  from 
the  round  tower  of  Swords.  On  the  17th,  the  summoned  Lords, 
with  several  of  the  neighboring  gentry,  met  by  appointment 
on  the  hill  of  Crofty,  in  the  neighboring  county  of  Meath  ;  while 
they  were  engaged  in  discussing  the  best  course  to  be  taken, 
a  party  of  armed  men  on  horseback,  accompanied  by  a  guard 
of  musketeers,  was  seen  approaching.  They  proved  to  be 
O'Moore,  O'Reilly,  Costelloe  McMahon,  brother  of  the  pri- 
soner, Colonel  Byrne,  and  Captain  Fox.  Lord  Qormanstown, 
advancing  in  front  of  his  friends,  demanded  of  the  new-comers 
"  why  they  came  armed  into  the  Pale  1"  To  which  O'Moore 
made  answer  "  that  the  ground  of  their  coming  thither  was 
for  the  freedom  and  liberty  of  their  consciences,  the  mainte- 
nance of  his  Majesty's  prerogative,  in  which  they  understood 
he  was  abridged,  and  the  making  the  subjects  of  this  kingdom 
as  free  as  those  of  England."  Lord  Qormanstown,  after  con- 
sulting a  few  moments  with  his  friends,  replied :  "  seeing  these 
be  your  true  ends  we  will  likewise  join  with  you."  The  lead- 
ers then  embraced  amid  the  acclamations  of  their  followers, 
and  the  general  conditions  of  their  union  having  been  unani- 
mously agreed  upon,  a  warrant  was  drawn  out  authorizing  the 
Sheriff  of  Meath  to  summon  the  gentry  of  the  county  to  a 
final  meeting  at  the  Hill  of  Tara  on  the  24th  of  December. 


504  POITLAR  HISTORY  or  IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CATHOLIC    CONFEDERATION — ITS    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT    AND 
MILITARY    ESTABLISHMENT. 

How  a  tumultuous  insurrection  grew  into  a  national  organ- 
ization, with  a  senate,  executive,  treasury,  army,  ships  and 
diplomacy,  we  are  now  to  describe.  It  may,  however,  be  aa- 
Humed  throughout  the  narrative,  that  the  success  of  the  new 
Confederacy  was  quite  as  much  to  be  attributed  to  the  per- 
verse policy  of  its  enemies  as  to  the  counsels  of  its  best  lead- 
ers. The  rising  in  the  midland  and  Mnnster  counties,  and  the 
formal  adhesion  of  the  Lords  of  the  Pale,  were  two  of  the 
principal  steps  towards  the  end.  A  third  was  taken  by  the 
Bishops  of  the  Province  of  Armagh,  assembled  in  Provincial 
Synod  at  Kells,  on  the  22d  of  March,  1642,  where,  with  th« 
exception  of  Dease,  of  Meath,  they  unanimously  pronounced 
"  the  war  just  and  lawful."  After  solemnly  condemning  all 
acts  of  private  vengeance,  and  all  those  who  usurped  other 
men's  estates,  this  provincial  meeting  invited  a  national  synod 
to  meet  at  Kilkenny  on  the  10th  day  of  May  following.  On 
that  day  accordingly,  all  the  Prelates  then  in  the  country, 
with  the  exception  of  Bishop  Dease,  met  at  Kilkenny.  There 
were  present  O'Reilly,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  Butler,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cashel,  O'Kealy,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  David  Rothe, 
the  venerable  Bishop  of  Ossory,  the  Bishops  of  Clonfert, 
Elphin,  Waterford,  Lismore,  Kildare,  and  Down  and  Connor; 
the  proctors  of  Dublin,  Limerick  and  Killaloe,  with  sixteen 
other  dignitaries  and  heads  of  religious  orders — in  all  twenty- 
nine  prelates  and  superiors,  or  their  representatives.  The 
most  remarkable  attendants  were,  considering  the  circum 
stances  of  their  Province,  the  prelates  of  Connaught.  Straf- 
ford's  reign  of  terror  w&s  still  painfully  remembered  west  of 
the  Shannon,  and  the  immense  family  influence  of  Ulick 
Burke,  then  Earl,  and  afterwards  Marquis  of  Claarickarde, 


POPULAR  BISTORT  OF  IRELAND.  505 

•*as  exerted  to  prevent  the  adhesion  of  the  western  population 
to  the  Confederacy.  Bat  the  zeal  of  the  Archbishop  of  Tuam, 
and  the  violence  of  the  Governor  of  Galway,  Sir  Francis  Wil- 
loughby,  proved  more  than  a  counterpoise  for  the  authority  ol 
Clanrickarde  and  the  recollection  of  Strafford:  Connaught, 
though  the  last  to  come  into  the  Confederation,  was  also  the 
last  to  abandon  it. 

The  Synod  of  Kilkenny  proceeded  with  the  utmost  solem- 
nity and  anxiety  to  consider  the  circumstances  of  their  own  and 
the  neighboring  kingdoms.  No  equal  number  of  men  could 
have  been  found  in  Ireland,  at  that  day,  with  an  equal  amount 
of  knowledge  of  foreign  and  domestic  politics.  Many  of  them 
had  spent  years  upon  the  Continent,  while  the  French  Hugue- 
nots held  their  one  hundred  "  cautionary  towns,"  and  "  leagues" 
and  "  associations"  were  the  ordinary  instruments  of  popular 
resistance  in  the  Netherlands  and  Germany.  Nor  were  the 
events  transpiring  in  the  neighboring  island  unknown  or  un- 
weighed  by  that  grave  assembly.  The  true  meaning  and  in- 
tent of  the  Scottish  and  English  insurrections  were  by  this  time 
apparent  to  every  one.  The  previous  months  had  been  espe- 
cially fertile  in  events,  calculated  to  rouse  their  most  serious 
apprehensions.  In  March  the  King  fled  from  London  to  York ; 
in  April  the  gates  of  Hull  were  shut  5n  his  face  by  Hotham,  its 
governor,  and  in  May  the  Long  Parliament -voted  a  levy  of 
16,000  without  the  royal  authority.  The  Earl  of  Warwick  had 
been  appointed  the  Parliamentary  commander  of  the  fleet,  and 
the  Earl  of  Essex,  their  Lord  General,  with  Cromwell  as  one 
of  his  captains.  From  that  hour  it  was  evident  the  sword 
alone  could  decide  between  Cha;les  and  his  subjects.  In 
Scotland,  too,  events  were  occurring  in  which  Irish  Catholics 
were  vitally  interested.  The  contest  for  the  leadership  of  the 
Scottish  royalists  between  the  Marquises  of  Hamilton  and 
Montrose  had  occupied  the  early  months  of  the  year,  and 
given  their  enemies  of  the  Kirk  aud  the  Assembly  full  time  to 
carry  on  their  correspondence  with  the  English  Puritans.  In 
April  all  parties  in  Scotland  agreed  in  despatching  a  force  of 
2,500  men,  under  "the  memorable  Major  Monroe,"  for  the 
protection  of  the  Scottish  settlers  in  Ulster.  On  the  15th  of 
43 


bO 6  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

that  month  this  officer  landed  at  Carrickfergus,  which  WM 
"  given  up  to  him  by  agreement,"  with  the  royalist  Colonel 
Chichester ;  the  fortress,  which  was  hy  much  the  strongest  in 
that  quarter,  continued  for  six  years  the  head-quarters  of  the 
Scottish  general,  with  whom  we  shall  have  occasion  to  meet 
again. 

The  state  of  Anglo-Irish  affairs  was  for  some  months  one  of 
disorganization  and  confusion.  In  January  and  February  the 
King  had  been  frequently  induced  to  denounce  by  proclama- 
tion his  "  Irish  rebels."  He  had  offered  the  Parliament  to 
lead  their  reinforcements  in  person,  had  urged  the  sending  of 
arms  and  men,  and  had  repeatedly  declared  that  he  would 
never  consent  tc  tolerate  Popery  in  that  country.  He  had 
failed  to  satisfy  his  enemies,  by  these  profuse  professions  had 
dishonored  himself,  and  disgusted  many  who  were  far  from 
being  hostile  to  his  person  or  family.  Parsons  and  Borlase 
were  still  continued  in  the  government,  and  Coote  was  en- 
trusted by  them,  on  all  possible  occasions,  with  a  command 
distinct  from  that  of  Ormond.  Having  proclaimed  the  Lords 
of  the  Pale  rebels  for  refusing  to  trust  their  persons  within 
the  walls  of  Dublin,  Coote  was  employed  during  January  to 
destroy  Swords,  their  place  of  rendezvous,  and  to  ravage  the 
estates  of  their  adherents  in  that  neighborhood.  In  the  same 
month  1,100  veterans  arrived  at  Dublin  under  Sir  Simon  Har- 
court ;  early  in  February  arrived  Sir  Richard  Orenville  with 
400  horse,  and  soon  after  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  Monk, 
afterwards  Duke  of  Albemarle,  with  Lord  Leicester's  regi- 
ment, 1,500  strong.  Up  to  this  period  Ormond  had  been 
restrained  by  the  justices,  who  were  as  timid  as  they  were 
cruel,  to  operations  within  an  easy  march  of  Dublin.  He  had 
driven  the  O'Moores  and  their  Allies  out  of  Naas ;  had  rein- 
forced some  garrisons  in  Kildare ;  he  had  broken  up,  though 
not  without  much  loss,  an  entrenched  camp  of  the  O'Byrnes 
at  Kilsalgen  wood,  on  the  borders  of  Dublin ;  at  last  the 
Justices  felt  secnre  enough,  at  the  beginning  of  March,  to 
allow  him  to  march  to  the  relief  of  Drogheda.  Sir  Phelira 
O'Neil  had  invested  the  place  for  more  than  three  months, 
had  been  twice  repulsed  from  its  walls,  made  a  last  desperate 


fOTOLAR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  507 

attempt,  towards  the  end  of  February,  but  with  no  better  suc- 
cess. After  many  lives  were  lost  the  impetuous  lawyer-soldier 
was  obliged  to  retire,  and  on  the  8th  of  March,  hearing  of 
Ormond's  approach  at  the  head  of  4,000  fresh  troops,  he 
hastily  retreated  northward.  On  receiving  this  report  the  Jus- 
tices recalled  Ormond  to  the  capital ;  Sir  Henry  Tichburne  and 
Lord  Moore  were  despatched  with  a  strong  force,  on  the  rear 
of  the  Ulster  forces,  and  drove  them  out  of  Ardee  and  Dun- 
dalk — the  latter  after  a  sharp  action.  The  march  of  Ormond 
into  Meath  had,  however,  been  prodcutive  of  offers  of  sub- 
mission from  many  of  the  gentry  of  the  Pale,  who  attended 
the  meetings  at  Crofty  and  Tara.  Lord  Dunsany  and  Sir  John 
Netterville  actually  surrendered  on  the  Earl's  guarantee,  and 
were  sent  to  Dublin  ;  Lords  Qormanstown,  Netterville  and 
Slane  offered  by  letter  to  follow  their  example ;  but  the  two 
former  were,  on  reaching  the  city,  thrust  into  the  dungeons 
of  the  Castle,  by  order  of  the  Justices  ;  and  the  proposals  of 
the  latter  were  rejected  with  contumely.  About  the  same 
time  the  Long  Parliament  passed  an  act  declaring  2,500,000 
acres  of  the  property  of  Irish  recusants  forfeited  to  the  State, 
and  guaranteeing  to  all  English  "adventurers"  contributing 
to  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  all  soldiers  serving  in  it, 
grants  of  land  in  proportion  to  their  service  and  con- 
tribution. This  act,  and  a  letter  from  Lord  Essex,  the 
Parliamentarian  Commander-in-Chief,  recommending  the  trans- 
portation of  captured  recusants  to  the  West  Indian  Colo- 
nies, effectually  put  a  stop  to  these  negotiations.  In  Ulster, 
by  the  end  of  April,  there  were  19,000  troops,  regulars  and  vol- 
unteers, in  the  garrison  or  in  the  field.  Newry  was  taken  by 
Monroe  and  Chichester,  where  80  men  and  womer>  and  2  priests 
were  put  to  death.  Magennis  was  obliged  to  abandon  Down, 
and  McMahon  Monaghan ;  Sir  Phelim  was  driven  to  burn 
Armagh  and  Duncannon,  and  to  take  bis  last  stand  at  Charle- 
mont.  In  a  severe  action  with  Sir  Robert  and  Sir  William 
Stewart  he  had  displayed  his  usual  courage  with  better  than 
his  usual  fortune,  which,  perhaps,  we  may  attribute  to  the 
presence  with  him  of  Sir  Alexander  McDonnell,  brother  to 
Lord  Antrim,  the  famous  Qolkitto  of  the  Irish  and  Scottish 


^  IRELAND. 

wars.  Bat  the  severest  defeat  which  the  Confederates  had 
was  in  the  heart  of  Leinster,  at  the  hamlet  of  Kilrush,  within 
four  miles  of  Athy.  Lord  Orinond,  returning  from  a  second 
reinforcement  of  Naas  and  other  Kildare  forts,  at  the  head,  by 
English  account,  of  4,000  men,  found  on  the  13th  of  April 
the  Catholics  of  the  midland  counties,  under  Lords  Mountgar- 
ret,  Ikerrin  and  Dunboyne,  Sir  Morgan  Cavenagh,  Rory 
O'.Vloore,  and  Hugh  O'Byrne,  drawn  up,  by  his  report,  8,000 
strong,  to  dispute  his  passage.  With  Ormond  were  the  Lord 
Dillon,  Lord  Brabazon,  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  Sir  Charles 
Coote,  and  Sir  T.  Lucas.  The  combat  was  short  but  murder- 
ous. The  Confederates  left  700  men,  including  Sir  Morgan 
Cavenagh,  and  some  other  officers,  dead  on  the  field ;  the 
remainder  retreated  in  disorder,  and  Ormond,  with  an  inconsid- 
erable diminution  of  numbers,  returned  in  triumph  to  Dublin. 
For  this  victory  the  Long  Parliament,  in  a  moment  of  enthu- 
siasm, voted  the  Lieutenant-Oeneral  a  jewel  worth  £500.  If 
any  satisfaction  could  be  derived  from  such  an  incident  the 
violent  death  of  their  most  ruthless  enemy,  Sir  Charles  Coote, 
might  have  afforded  the  Catholics  some  consolation.  That  mer- 
ciless saberer,  after  the  combat  at  Kilrush,  had  been  employed 
in  reiniorcing  Birr,  and  relieving  the  Castle  of  Oeashill,  which 
the  lady  Letitia  of  Offally  held  against  the  neighboring  tribe  of 
O'Dtnnpsey.  On  his  return  from  this  service  he  made  a  foray 
n^ninst  a  Catholic  force,  which  had  mustered  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Trim;  here,  on  the  night  of  the  7th  of  May,  heading 
a  sally  of  his  troop  he  fell  by  a  musket  shot — not  without  sus- 
picion of  being  fired  from  his  own  ranks.  His  son  and  name- 
s;ik'\  who  imitated  him  in  all  things,  was  ennobled  at  the 
restoration  by  the  title  of  the  Earl  of  Mountrath.  In  M  mister 
the  President  St.  Leger,  though  lately  reinforced  by  1,000 
men  from  England,  did  not  consider  himself  strong  enough 
for  other  than  occasional  forays  into  the  neighboring  county, 
and  little  was  effected  in  that  Province. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  at  home  and  abroad  when 
the  National  Synod  assembled  at  Kilkenny.  As  the  most 
popular  tribunal  invested  with  the  highest  moral  power  in  the 
kingdom,  it  was  their  arduous  task  to  establish  order  an<J 


WFTTI.AR   HISTORY   OF    IRELAND.  509 

thoritv  among  the  chaotic  elements  of  the  revolution.  By 
the  admission  of  those  moet  opposed  to  them  they  conducted 
their  deliberations  for  nearly  three  weeks  with  equal  prudenc* 
and  energy.  They  first,  on  the  motion  of  the  venerable  Bishop 
Rothe,  framed  an  oath  of  association  to  be  publicly  taken  by 
all  their  adherents,  by  the  first  part  of  which  they  were  bound 
to  bear  "  true  faith  and  allegiance"  to  King  Charles  and  hie 
lawful  successors,  "  to  maintain  the  fundamental  laws  of  Ire- 
land, the  free  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  reli- 
gion," By  the  second  part  of  this  oath  all  Confederate 
Catholics— for  so  they  were  to  be  called — as  solemnly  bound 
themselves  never  to  accept  or  submit  to  any  peace  "  without 
the  consent  and  approbation  of  the  general  assembly  of  the 
said  Confederate  Catholics."  They  then  proceeded  to  make 
certain  con  titutions,  declaring  the  war  just  and  lawful ;  con- 
demning emulations  and  distinctions  founded  on  distinctions 
of  race,  such  as  "new"  and  "  old  Irish  ;"  ordaining  an  elective 
council  for  each  Province  ;  and  a  Supreme  or  National  Coun- 
cil for  the  whole  kingdom ;  condemning  as  excommunicate 
all  who  should,  having  taken  the  oath,  violate  it,  or  who 
should  be  guilty  of  murder,  violence  to  persons,  or  plunder 
under  pretence  of  the  war.  Although  the  attendance  of  the 
lay  leaders  of  the  movement  at  Kilkenny  was  far  from  general, 
the  exigencies  of  the  case  compelled  them  to  nominate,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  Bishops,  the  first  Supreme  Council  of 
which  Lord  Montgarret  was  chosen  President,  and  Mr. 
Richard  Belling,  an  accomplished  writer  and  lawyer,  Secre- 
tary. By  this  body  a  General  Assembly  of  the  entire  Nation 
was  summoned  to  meet  at  the  same  city,  on  the  28d  of  October 
following — the  anniversary  of  the  Ulster  rising,  commonly 
called  by  the  English  party  "  Lord  Maguire's  day."  The 
choice  of  such  an  occasion  by  men  of  Mountgarret's  and 
Selling's  moderation  and  judgment,  six  months  after  the 
date  of  the  alleged  "  massacre,"  would  form  another  proof, 
if  any  were  now  needed,  that  none  of  the  alleged  atrocities 
were  yet  associated  with  the  memory  of  that  particular  day. 

The  events  of  the  five  months,  which  intervened  behveer. 
the  adjournment  of  the  National  Syaod  at  the  end  of  May, 


510  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

and  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  on  the  28d  of  Octo- 
ber,  may  best  be  smamed  up  under  the  head  of  the  respectiT« 
provinces.  I.  The  oath  of  Confederation  was  taken  with  en- 
thusiasm imMunster,  a  Provincial  Council  elected,  and  Gen- 
eral Barry  chosen  Commander-in- Chief.  Barry  made  an 
attempt  upon  Cork,  which  was  repulsed,  but  a  few  days  later 
the  not  loss  important  city  of  Limerick  opened  its  gates  to 
tli?  Confederates,  and  on  the  21st  of  June  the  citadel  was 
breached  and  surrendered  by  Courtenay,  the  Governor.  On 
the  2d  of  July  St.  Leger  died  at  Cork  (it  was  said  of  vexation 
for  the  loss  of  Limerick),  and  the  command  devolved  on  his 
son-in-law,  Lord  InchSquin,  a  pupil  of  the  school  of  Wards, 
and  a  soldier  of  the  school  of  Sir  Charles  Coote.  With  Inchi- 
quin  was  associated  the  Earl  of  Barrymore  for  the  civil  admin- 
istration, but  on  Barrymore's  death  in  September  both  powers 
remained  for  twelve  months  in  the  hands  of  the  survivor.  Th» 
gain  of  Limerick  was  followed  by  the  taking  of  Loughgar 
and  Askeaton,  but  was  counterbalanced  by  the  defeat  of  Lis- 
carroll,  when  the  Irish  loss  was  800  men  with  several  colors  ; 
Ir.chiquin  reported  only  20  killed,  including  the  young  lord 
Kinalmeaky,  one  of  the  five  sons  whom  the  Earl  of  Cork  gave 
to  this  war.  II.  In  Connaught  Lord  Clanrickarde  was  still 
enabled  to  avert  a  general  outbreak.  In  vain  the  western 
Prelates  besought  him  in  a  pathetic  remonstrance  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  its  injured  inhabitants,  and  take  the 
command  of  tho  Province.  He  continued  to  play  a  middle 
part  between  the  President,  Lord  Ranelagh,  Sir  Charles  Coote 
the  younger,  and  Willonghby,  Governor  of  Galway,  until  the 
popular  impatience  burst  all  control.  The  chief  of  the  O'Fla- 
hertys  seized  Clanrickarde's  castle,  of  Aughrenure,  and  the 
young  men  of  Galway,  with  a  skill  and  decision  quite  equal  to 
that  of  the  Derry  apprentices  of  an  after  day,  se!zed  an  English 
Bhip  containing  arms  and  supplies,  lying  in  the  bay,  marched 
to  the  Church  of  Saint  Nicholas,  took  the  Confederate  oath, 
and  shut  Willoughby  up  in  the  citadel.  Clanrickarde  hastened 
to  extinguish  this  spark  of  resistance,  and  induced  the  towns- 
men to  capitulate  on  his  personal  guarantee.  But  Willoughby, 
on  the  arrival  of  reinforcements,  under  the  fanatical  Lord. 


POPULAR  BISTORT   OF  IRELAND.  511 

Ferbes,  at  once  set  the  truce  made  by  Clanrickarde  at  defiance, 
burned  the  suburbs,  sacked  the  Churches,  and  during  August 
and  September  exercised  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  town.  About 
the  same  tkne  local  risings  took  place  in  Sligo,  Mayo  and  Eos- 
common,  at  first  with  such  success  that  the  President  of  tha 
Province,  Lord  Ranelagh,  shut  himself  up  in  the  castle  of  Ath- 
lone,  where  he  was  closely  besieged.  III.  In  Leinster,  no  mili- 
tary movement  of  much  importance  was  made,  in  consequence 
of  the  jealousy  the  Justices  entertained  of  Ormond,  and  the 
emptiness  of  the  treasury.  In  June,  the  Long  Parliament  re- 
mitted  over  the  paltry  sum  of  £11,600  to  the  Justices,  and 
2,000  of  the  troops,  which  had  all  but  mutinied  for  their  pay. 
were  despatched  under  Ormond  to  the  relief  of  Athlone.  Com- 
missioners arrived  during  the  summer  appointed  by  the  Par- 
liament, to  report  on  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  to  whom  the  Jus- 
tices submitted  a  penal  code  worthy  of  the  brain  of  Draco  or 
Domitian ;  Ormond  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Marquis,  by  the 
King ;  while  the  army  he  commanded  grew  more  and  more 
divided,  by  intrigues  emanating  from  the  castle  and  beyond 
the  channel.  Before  the  month  of  October,  James  Touchet, 
Earl  of  Castlehaven,  an  adventurous  nobleman,  possessed  of 
large  estates  both  in  Ireland  and  England,  effected  his 
escape  from  Dublin  Castle,  where  he  had  been  imprisoned 
on  suspicion  by  Parsons  and  Borlase,  and  joined  the  Con- 
federation at  Kilkenny.  In  September,  Colonel  Thomas 
Preston,  the  brave  defender  of  Louvain,  uncle  to  Lord  Qor- 
manstown,  landed  at  Wexford,  with  three  frigates  and  several 
transports,  containing  a  few  siege  guns,  field  pieces,  and  other 
stores,  600  officers,  and  a  number  of  engineers.  IV.  In  Ulster, 
where  the  first  blow  was  struck  and  the  first  hopes  were  ex- 
cited, the  prospect  had  become  suddenly  overclouded.  Monroe 
took  Dunluce  from  Lord  Antrim  by  the  same  stratagem  by 
which  Sir  Phelim  took  Charlemont — inviting  himself  as  a 
guest,  and  arresting  his  host  at  his  own  table.  A  want  of  cor- 
dial co-operation  between  the  Scotch  commander  and  "  the 
Undertakers "  alone  prevented  them  extinguishing  in  one 
vigorous  campaign  the  Jiorthern  insurrection.  So  weak  and 
disorganized  were  now  the  thousands  who  had  risen  at  a  bound 


512  POPULAR  HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 

one  short  year  before,  that?  the  garrisons  of  Enniekillen,  T)erry 
Newry  and  Drogheda,  scoured  almost  unopposed  the  neigh- 
boring counties.  The  troops  of  Cole,  Hamilton,  the  Stewarta, 
Chichesters  and  Con  ways,  found  little  opposition  and  gave  no 
quarter.  Sir  William  Cole,  among  bis  claims  of  service  ren- 
dered to  the  State,  enumerated  "  7,000  of  the  rebels  famished 
to  death,"  within  a  circuit  of  a  few  miles  from  Enniskillen. 
The  disheartened  and  disorganized  natives  were  seriously 
deliberating  a  wholesale  emigration  to  the  Scottish  highlands, 
when  a  word  of  magic  effect  was  whispered  from  the  sea  coast 
to  the  interior.  On  the  6th  of  July  Colonel  Owen  Eoe  O'Neil 
arrfved  off  Donegal  with  a  single  ship,  a  single  company  of 
veterans,  100  officers,  and  a  considerable  quantity  of  ammu- 
nition. He  landed  at  Doe  Castle,  and  was  escorted  by  his 
kinsman,  Sir  Phelim,  to  the  fort  of  Charlemont.  A  general 
meeting  of  the  northern  clans  was  quickly  called  at  Clones,  in 
Monaghan,  and  there,  on  an  early  day  after  his  arrival,  Owen 
O'Neil  was  elected  "General-in-Chief  of  the  Catholic  Army" 
of  the  North,  Sir  Phelim  resigning  in  his  favor,  and  taking 
instead  the  barren  title  of  "  President  of  Ulster."  At 
the  same  moment  Lord  Lieven  arrived  from  Scotland  with 
the  remainder  of  the  10,000  voted  by  the  Parliament  of  that 
kingdom.  He  had  known  O'Neil  abroad,  had  a  high  opinion 
of  his  abilities,  and  wrote  to  express  his  surprise  "  that  a  man 
of  his  reputation  should  be  engaged  in  so  bad  a  cause ;"  to 
which  O'Neil  replied  that  "  he  had  a  better  right  to  come  to 
the  relief  of  his  own  country  than  his  lordship  had  to  march 
into  England  against  his  lawful  King."  Lieven,  before  return- 
ing home,  urged  Monroe  to  act  with  promptitude,  for  that  he 
might  expect  a  severe  lesson  if  the  new  commander  once  suc- 
ceeded in  collecting  an  army.  But  Monroe  proved  deaf  to 
this  advice,  and  while  the  Scottish  and  English  forces  in  the 
Province  would  have  amounted,  if  united,  to  20,000  foot  and 
1 ,000  horse,  they  gave  O'Neil  time  enough  to  embody,  officer, 
drill,  and  arm  (at  least  provisionally),  a  force  not  to  1>« 
despised  by  even  twice  their  numbers. 


CHAPTER  VL 

rBX    CONFEDERATE    WAE. CAMPAIGN    OF    1643. THE    CESSATION. 

The  city  of  Kilkenny,  which  had  become  the  capital  of  th« 
Confederacy,  was  favorably  placed  for  the  direction  of  the  war  in 
Leinster  and  Munster.  Nearly  equidistant  from  Dublin,  Cork, 
and  Limerick,  a  meeting  place  for  most  of  the  southern  and 
south-western  roads,  important  in  itself  both  as  a  place  of  tra<?«, 
and  as  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond  and  the  Bishop  of 
Ossory,  a  better  choice  could  not,  perhaps,  have  been  made,  HO 
far  as  regarded  the  ancient  southern  "  half-Kingdom."  But  it 
seems  rather  surprising  that  the  difficulty  of  directing  the  war 
in  the  North  and  North-West,  from  a  point  so  far  south,  did  not 
occur  to  the  statesmen  of  the  Confederacy.  In  the  defective 
communications  of  those  days,  especially  during  a  war,  partaking 
even  partially  of  the  character  of  civil  strife,  it  was  hard,  if  not 
impossible  to  expect,  that  a  supervision  could  be  exercised  over 
a  general  or  an  army  on  the  Erne  or  the  Bann,  which  might  be 
quite  possible  and  proper  on  the  Suir  or  the  Shannon.  A  similar 
necessity  in  England  necessitated  the  creation  of  the  Presidency 
of  the  North,  with  its  council  and  head-quarters  in  the  city  of 
York ;  nor  need  we  be  surprised  to  find  that,  from  the  first,  th« 
confederate  movements  combined  themselves  into  two  groups—" 
the  northern  and  the  southern — those  which  revolved  round  th* 
center  of  Kilkenny,  and  those  which  took  their  law  from  the 
head  quarters  of  Owen  O'Neil,  at  Belturbet,  or  wherever  else  hia 
cuuip  happened  to  be  situated. 

The  General  Assembly  met,  according  to  agreement,  on  the  28d 
of  October,  1642,  at  Kilkenny.  Eleven  bishops  and  fourteen  lay 
lords  represented  the  Irish  peerage ;  two  hundred  and  twenty-six 
commoners,  the  large  majority  of  the  constituencies.  Both  bodies 
sat  in  the  same  chamber,  divided  only  by  a  raised  dais.  The 
celebrated  lawyer,  Patrick  Darcy,  a  member  of  the  Commons' 
house,  was  chosen  as  chancellor,  am"  everything  was  conducted 


514  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

with  the  gravity  and  deliberation  befitting  so  venerable  an  As. 
sembly,  and  so  great  an  occasion.  The  business  most  pressing, 
and  most  delicate,  was  felt  to  be  the  consideration  of  a  form  o! 
supreme  executive  government.  The  committee  on  this  subject, 
who  reported  after  the  interval  of  a  week,  was  composed  of  Lorda 
Gonaanstown  and  Castlehaven,  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil,  Sir  Richard 
Belling,  and  Mr.  Darcy.  A  "  Supreme  Coracil "  of  six  members 
for  each  province  was  recommended,  approved,  and  elected.  The 
Archbishops  of  Armagh,  Dublin,  and  Tuam,  the  Bishops  of  Down 
and  of  Clonfert,  the  Lords  Gormanstown,  Mountgarrett,  Roche, 
and  Mayo,  with  fifteen  of  the  most  eminent  commoners,  composed 
this  council.  It  was  provided  that  the  vote  of  two-thirds  should 
be  necessary  to  any  act  affecting  the  basis  of  the  Confederacy, 
but  a  quorum  of  nine  was  sufficient  for  flie  transaction  of  ordinary 
business.  A  guard  of  honor  of  500  foot  and  200  horse  was  al- 
lowed for  their  greater  security.  The  venerable  Mountgarrett, 
the  head  of  the  Catholic  Butlers,  (son-in-law  of  the  illustrious 
Tyrone,  who,  in  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth,  had  devoted  his 
youtliful  sword  to  the  same  good  cause,)  was  elected  president  of 
this  council ;  and  Sir  Richard  Belling,  a  lawyer,  and  a  man  of 
letters,  the  continuator  of  Sir  Phillip  Sydney's  Arcadia,  wae  ap- 
pointed secretary. 

The  first  act  of  this  supreme  council  was  to  appoint  General 
O'Neill  as  commander  in  chief  in  Ulster ;  General  Preston,  in 
Leinster;  General  Barry,  in  Munster;  and  Sir  John  Burke  as 
lieutenant-general  in  Connaught;  the  supreme  command  in  the  West 
being  held  over  for  Clanrickarde,  who,  it  was  still  hoped,  might 
be  led  or  driven  into  the  Confederacy.  We  shall  endeavor  to 
indicate  in  turn  the  operations  of  these  commanders,  thus  chosen 
or  confirmed ;  leaving  the  civil  and  diplomatic  business  transacted 
by  the  General  Assembly,  or  delegated  to  the  supreme  council, 
for  future  mention. 

Contrary  to  the  custom  of  that  age,  the  Confederate  troops 
were  not  withdrawn  into  winter  quarters.  In  November,  General 
Pr«8ton,  at  the  head  of  6,000  foot  and  600  horse,  encountered 
Monk  at  Tytnahoe  and  Ballinakil,  with  some  loss ;  but  before  the 
close  of  December  he  had  reduced  Birr,  Banagher,  Bums,  and 
Fort  Falkland,  and  found  himself  master  of  King's  county,  from  the 


POPULAR   HISTORT    OF   IRE-LAND.  515 

Shannon  to  the  Barrow.  In  February,  however,  he  sustained  a 
serious  check  at  Rathconnell,  in  endeavoring  to  intercept  the  re 
treat  of  the  English  troops  from  Connaught,  under  the  command 
of  Lord  Ranelagh,  and  the  younger  Coote ;  and  in  March  equaJ 
ill  success  attended  his  attempt  to  intercept  Ormond,  in  his  re. 
treat  from  the  unsuccessful  siege  of  the  town  of  Ross.  Lord 
Castlehaven,  who  was  Preston's  second  in  command,  attributes 
both  these  reverses  to  the  impetuosity  of  the  general,  whose  im- 
prudence seems  to  have  been  almost  as  great  as  his  activity  was 
conspicuous.  In  April  and  May,  Preston  and  Castlehaven  took 
several  strongholds  in  Carlow,  Kildare  and  Westmeath,  and  the 
General  Assembly,  which  met,  for  its  second  session,  on  the  20th 
of  May,  164",  at  Kilkenny,  had,  on  the  whole,  good  grounds  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  success  of  the  war  in  Leinster. 

In  the  Southern  Province,  considerable  military  successes  might 
also  be  claimed  by  the  Confederates.  The  Munster  troops,  under 
Purcell,  the  second  in  command,  a  capable  soldier,  who  had  learned 
the  art  of  war  in  the  armies  of  the  German  Empire,  relieved  Ross, 
when  besieged  by  Ormond ;  General  Barry  had  successfully  re- 
pulsed an  attack  on  his  head  quarters,  the  famous  old  Desmond 
town  of  Killmallock.  In  June,  Barry,  Purcell  and  Castlehaven 
drove  the  enemy  before  them  across  the  Puncheon,  and  at  Kil- 
worth  brought  their  main  body,  under  Sir  Charles  Vavasour,  to 
action.  Vavasour's  force  was  badly  beaten,  himself  captured, 
with  his  cannon  and  colors,  and  many  of  his  officers  and  men. 
Inchiquin,  who  had  endeavored  to  form  a  junction  with  Vavasoun 
escaped  to  one  of  the  few  remaining  garrisons  open  to  him— 
probably  YoughaL 

In  Connaught,  the  surrender  of  Galway,  on  the  20th  of  June, 
eclipsed  all  the  previous  successes,  and  they  were  not  a  few,  of 
Lieutenant-General  Burke.  From  the  day  Lord  Ranelagh  and 
the  younger  Coote  deserted  the  "Western  province,  the  Confeder- 
ate cause  had  rapidly  advanced.  The  surrender  of  "  the  second 
fort  in  the  Kingdom  " — a  sea-port  in  that  age,  not  unworthy  to  be 
ranked  with  Cadiz  and  Bristol,  for  its  commercial  wealth  and  re- 
putation— was  a  military  event  of  the  first  importance.  An  English 
fleet  appeared  three  days  after  the  surrender  of  Willoughby,  in 
Galway  harbor ;  but  nine  long  years  elapsed  before  the  Con- 


Si  6  pdPULAB  HiSTonr  or 

federate  co  ore  were  lowered  from  the  towers  of  the  Connanghl 
citadel. 

In  the  North,  O'Neill,  who,  without  injustice  to  any  of  hi« 
contemporaries,  may  certainly  be  said  to  have  made  during  hia 
seven  years  command  the  highest  European  reputation,  among 
the  Confederate  generals,  gathered  his  recruits  into  a  rugged 
district  which  forms  a  sort  of  natural  camp,  in  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  island.  Tho  mountain  plateau  of  Leitrim,  which 
sends  its  spurs  downwards  to  the  Atlantic,  to  wards  Lough  Erne, 
and  into  Longford,  accessible  only  by  four  or  five  lines  of  rcwu?. 
leading  over  narrow  bridges  and  through  deep  defiles,  was  the 
nursery  selected  by  this  cautious  leader,  in  which  to  collect  and 
organize  his  forces.  In  the  beginning  of  May — seven  months 
after  the  date  of  his  commission,  and  ten  from  his  solitary  land- 
ing at  Doe  Castle — we  find  him  a  long  march  from  his  mountain 
fortress  in  Leitrim,  at  Charlemont,  which  lie  had  strengthened 
and  garrisoned,  and  now  saved  from  a  surprise  attempted  by 
Munroe,  from  Carrickfergus.  Having  effected  that  immediate 
object,  he  again  retired  towards  the  Leitrim  highlands,  fighting 
by  the  way  a  smart  cavalry  action  at  Clonish,  with  a  superior 
force,  under  Colonels  Stewart,  Balfour,  and  Mervyn.  La  this 
affair,  O'Neill  was  only  too  happy  to  have  carried  off  his  troop 
with  credit ;  but  a  fortnight  brought  him  consolation  for  Clonish 
in  the  brilliant  affair  of  Portlester.  He  had  descended  in  force 
from  his  hills  and  taken  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
ancient  Meath.  General  Monk  and  Lord  Moore  were  dispatched 
against  him,  but  reinforced  by  a  considerable  body  of  Meathian 
Confederates,  under  Sir  James  Dillon,  he  resolved  to  risk  his  first 
regular  engagement  in  the  field.  Taking  advantage  of  the  situa 
tion  of  the  ground,  about  five  miles  from  Trim,  he  threw  up  some 
field  worts,  placed  sixty  men  in  Portlester  mill,  and  patiently 
awaited  the  advance  of  the  enemy.  Their  assault  WM  over  confi- 
dent, their  route  complete.  Lord  Moore,  and  a  large  portion  of 
the  assailants  were  slain,  and  Monk  fled  back  to  Dublin.  O'Neil 
gathering  fresh  strength  from  these  movements,  abandoned  hit 
mountain  stronghold,  and  established  hid  head  quarters  on  the 
river  Erne  between  Longh  Onghtcr  (memorable  in  his  life  and 
death)  and  the  up{>er  waters  of  Lough  Erne.  At  this  point  stood 


T»OPURAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  517 

the  town  of  Belturbet,  which  in  "  the  Plantation"  of  James  L,  had 
been  turnei*  over  exclusively  to  British  settlers,  whose  "  cage- 
work  "  hous3s,  and  four  acres  of  garden  ground  each,  had  elicited 
the  approval  of  the  surveyor  Pynnar,  frventy  years  before.  The 
surrounding  country  was  covered  with  the  fortified  castles  (aid 
loopholed  lawns  of  the  chief  Undertakers — but  few  were  found  of 
sufficient  strength  to  resist  the  arms  of  O'Neill.  At  Belturbet,  he 
was  within  a  few  days'  march  of  the  vital  points  of  four  other 
counties,  and  in  case  of  the  worst,  within  the  same  distance  of  his 
protective  fastness.  Here,  towards  the  end  of  September,  busied 
with  present  duties  and  future  projects,  he  heard  for  the  first 
time,  with  astonishment  and  grief,  that  the  requisite  majority  of 
"  the  Supreme  Council "  had  concluded,  on  the  13th  of  that  month, 
a  twelve-months'  truce  with  Ormond,  thus  putting  in  peril  all  the 
advantages  already  acquired  by  the  bravery  of  the  Confederate 
troops,  and  the  skill  of  their  generals. 

The  war  had  lasted  nearly  two  years,  and  this  was  the  first  time 
the  Catholics  had  consented  to  negotiate.  The  moment  chosen 
was  a  critical  one  for  all  the  three  Kingdoms,  and  the  interests 
involved  were  complicated  in  the  extreme.  The  Anglo-Irish  who 
formed  the  majority  of  the  Supreme  Council,  connected  by  blood 
and  language  with  England,  had  entered  into  the  war,  purely  aa 
one  of  religious  liberty.  Nationally,  they  had,  apart  from  th« 
civil  disabilities  imposed  on  religious  grounds,  no  antipathy,  no 
interest,  hostile  to  the  general  body  of  English  loyalists,  repre- 
sented in  Ireland  by  the  King's  lieutenant,  Ormond.  On  his  side, 
that  nobleman  g-ave  all  his  thoughts  to,  and  governed  all  his  actions 
by  the  exigencies  of  the  royal  cause,  throughout  the  three  King- 
doms. When  Charles  seemed  strong  in  England,  Ormond  rated 
the  Catholics  at  a  low  figure ;  but  when  reverses  increased  he 
estimated  their  alliance  more  highly.  After  the  drawn  battle  of 
Edgehill,  fought  on  the  very  day  of  the  first  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  at  Kilkenny,  the  King  had  established  his  headquarters 
at  Oxford,  in  the  heart  of  four  or  five  of  the  most  loyal  counties 
in  England.  Here  he  at  first  negotiated  with  the  Parliament, 
but  finally  the  sword  was  again  invoked,  and  while  the  King  pro- 
claimod  the  Parliament  rebels,  "  the  solemn  league  and  covenant1* 
was  entered  into,  at  first  separately,  and  afterwards  jointly,  hy  th» 
44 


618  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

Puritans  of  England,  and  Presbyterians  of  Scotland.  The  military 
events  during  that  year,  and  in  the  first  half  of  the  next,  were 
upon  the  whole  not  unfavorable  to  the  royal  cause.  The  great 
battle  of  Marston  Moor,  (July  2d,  1644,)  which  "  extinguished  th» 
hopes  of  the  Royalists  in  the  Northern  counties,"  was  the  first 
Parliamentary  victory  of  national  importance.  It  waa  won  mainly 
by  the  energy  and  obstinacy  of  Lieutenant  General  Cromwellt 
from  that  day  forth  the  foremost  English  figure  in  the  Civil  War. 
From  his  court  at  Oxford,  where  he  had  seen  the  ntter  failure  of 
endeavoring  to  conciliate  his  English  and  Scottish  enemies,  the 
King  had  instructed  Ormond — lately  created  a  Marquis — to  treat 
with  the  Irish  Catholics,  and  to  obtain  from  them  men  and  mouey. 
The  overtures  thus  made  were  brought  to  maturity  in  September ; 
the  Cessation  was  to  last  twelve  months ;  each  party  was  to  remain 
in  possession  of  its  own  quarters,  as  they  were  held  at  the  date  of 
the  treaty ;  the  forces  of  each  were  to  unite  to  punish  any  infrac- 
tion of  the  terms  agreed  on ;  the  agents  of  the  Confederates,  during 
the  cessation,  were  to  have  free  access  and  safe  conduct  to  the 
King ;  and  for  these  advantages,  the  Supreme  Council  were  to 
present  his  Majesty  immediately  with  £16,000  in  money,  and  pro- 
visions to  the  value  of  £15,000  more. 

Such  was  "  the  truce  of  Castlemartin,"  condemned  by  O'Neill, 
by  the  Papal  Nuncio,  Scarampi,  and  by  the  great  majority  of  the 
old  Irish,  lay  and  clerical ;  still  more  violently  denounced  by  the 
Puritan  Parliament  as  favoring  popery,  and  negotiated  by  popish 
agents ;  beneficial  to  Ormond  and  the  Undertakers,  as  relieying 
Dublin,  freeing  the  channel  from  Irish  privateers,  and  securing  them 
in  the  garrisons  throughout  the  Kingdom  which  they  still  held ; 
in  one  sense  advantageous  to  Charles  from  the  immediate  supplier 
it  afforded,  and  the  favorable  impression  it  created  of  his  liberality, 
»  the  courts  of  his  Catholic  allies ;  but  on  the  other  hand  disad- 
vantageous to  him  in  England  and  Scotland,  from  the  pretexts  it 
furnished  his  enemies,  of  renewing  the  cry  of  his  connivance  with 
Popery,  a  cry  net  ther  easily  answered,  nor,  of  itself,  liable  quickl/ 
to  wear  oat. 


POPULAR   BISTORT   OF   IRELAND.  519 

CHAPTER  VIL 

THE   CESSATION    AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES. 

While  the  Confederate  delegates,  reverently  uncoA'ered,  and 
Ormond,  in  hat  and  plume,  as  representing  royalty,  were  signing 
"  the  cessation  "  at  Castlemartin,  the  memorable  Munroe,  with  aP 
his  men,  were  taking  the  covenant,  on  their  knees,  in  the  church 
of  Carrickfergus,  at  the  hands  of  the  informer  O'Connolly,  now  a 
colonel  in  the  Parliamentary  army,  and  high  in  the  confidence  of 
its  chiefs.  Soon  after  this  ceremony,  Munroe,  appointed  by  th« 
English  Parliament  commander-in-chief  of  all  their  forces  in 
Ulster,  united  under  his  immediate  leadership,  of  Scots,  English, 
and  Undertakers,  not  less  than  10,000  men.  With  this  force  he 
marched  southward  as  far  as  Isewry,  which  he  found  an  easy 
prey,  and  where  he  put  to  the  sword,  after  surrender,  sixty  men, 
eighteen  women,  and  two  ecclesiastics.  In  vain  the  Confederates 
entreated  Ormond  to  lead  them  against  the  common  enemy  in  the 
North ;  pursuing  always  a  line  of  policy  of  his  own,  in  which 
their  interest  had  a  very  slender  part,  that  astute  politician  neither 
took  the  field,  nor  consented  that  they  should  do  so  of  themselves. 
But  the  supreme  council,  roused  by  the  remontrances  of  the 
clergy,  ordered  Lord  Castlehaven,  with  the  title  of  commander 
in  chief,  to  march  against  Munroe.  This  was  virtually  supersed- 
ing O'Neill  in  his  own  province,  and  that  it  was  so  felt  even 
by  its  authors  is  plain  from  their  giving  him  simultaneously  the 
command  in  Connaught.  O'Neill,  never  greater  than  in  acts  of 
Belf-denial  and  self-sacrifice,  stifled  his  profound  chagrin,  and 
cheerfully  offered  to  serve  under  the  English  Earl,  placed  over 
his  head.  But  the  northern  movements  were,  for  many  months, 
languid  and  uneventful :  both  parties  seemed  uncertain  of  their 
irue  policy ;  both,  from  day  to  day,  awaited  breathlessly  for  tid- 
ings from  Kilkenny,  Dublin,  London,  Oxford,  or  Edinburgh,  to 
learn  what  new  forms  the  general  contest  was  to  take,  in  order  to 
guide  their  own  conduct  by  the  shiftinj;  phases  of  that  intricate 
diplomacy. 

Among  the  first  consequences  of  the  cessation  were  the  d» 


520  POPULAB   HISTORY   OF  IBKLAKD. 

barkAtion  at  Moetyn,  in  Scotland,  of  8,000  well  provided  Irish 
troops,  under  Colkitto,  (the  left-handed,)  Alexander  McDonnel, 
brother  of  Lord  Antrim.  Following  the  banner  of  Montrose, 
thcee  regiments  performed  great  things  at  Saint  Johnstown,  at 
Aberdeen,  at  Inverlochy,  all  which  have  been  eloquently  re- 
corded  by  the  historians  of  that  period.  "Their  reputation/' 
eays  a  cautious  writer,  "  more  than  their  number,  unnerved  the 
prowess  of  their  enemies.  No  force  ventured  to  oppose  them  in 
the  field ;  and  as  they  advanced,  every  fort  was  abandoned  or 
surrendered."  A  less  agreeable  result  of  "  the  cessation,"  for  tho 
court  at  Oxford,  was  the  retirement  from  the  royal  army  of  tho 
Earl  of  Newcastle,  and  most  of  his  officers,  on  learning  that  such 
favorable  conditions  had  been  made  with  Irish  Papists.  To  others 
of  his  supporters — as  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury — Charles  was  forced 
to  assume  a  tone  of  apology  for  that  truce,  pleading  the  hard 
necessities  which  compelled  him :  the  truth  seems  to  be,  that 
there  were  not  a  few  then  at  Oxford,  who,  like  Lord  Spencer, 
would  gladly  have  been  on  the  other  side — or  at  all  events  in  • 
position  of  neutrality — provided  they  could  have  found  "  a  salve 
for  their  honor,"  as  gentlemen  and  cavaliers. 

The  year  1644  opened  for  the  Irish  with  two  events  of  great 
significance — the  appointment  of  Ormond  as  viceroy,  in  January, 
and  the  execution  at  Tyburn,  by  order  of  the  English  Parliament, 
of  Lord  Maguire,  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  since  October,  1641. 
Maguire  died  with  a  courage  and  composure  worthy  of  his  illus- 
trious name,  and  his  profoundly  religious  character.  His  long 
absence  had  not  effaced  his  memory  from  the  hearts  of  his  devoted 
clansmen  of  Fermanagh,  and  many  a  prayer  was  breathed,  and 
many  a  vow  of  vengeance  muttered  among  them,  for  what  they 
must  naturally  have  regarded  as  the  cold-blooded  judicial  murder 
of  their  chief. 

Two  Irish  deputations — one  Catholic,  the  other  Protestant — 
proceeded  this  year  to  the  king,  at  Oxford,  with  the  approval  of 
Ormond,  who  took  care  to  be  represented  by  confidential  agent* 
of  his  own.  The  Catholics  found  a  zealous  auxiliary  in  the  queen, 
Henrietta  Maria,  who,  as  a  co-religionist,  felt  with  them,  and,  as 
a  Frenchwoman,  was  free  from  Insnlnr  prejudices  again?*  them. 
The  Irish  Protestants  found  a  scarcely  less  influential  advocaU 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  621 

!n  the  venerable  Archbishop  Usher,  whose  presence  and  counte- 
nance, as  the  most  puritanical  of  his  prelates,  was  most  essential 
to  the  policy  of  Charles.  The  king  heard  Loth  par-ties  graciously 
— censured  some  of  the  demands  of  both  as  extravagant  and 
beyond  his  power  to  concede — admitted  others  to  be  reasonable 
and  worthy  of  consideration — refused  to  confirm  the  churche* 
Ihey  had  seized  to  the  Catholics — but  was  willing  to  allow  them 
their  "  seminaries  of  education" — would  not  consent  to  enforce 
the  penal  laws  on  the  demand  of  the  Protestants — but  declared 
that  neither  should  the  Undertakers  be  disturbed  in  their  posses- 
sions or  offices.  In  short  he  pathetically  exhorted  both  partie* 
to  consider  his  case  as  well  as  their  own ;  promised  them  to  call 
together  the  Irish  Parliament  at  the  earliest  possible  period ;  and 
so  got  rid  of  both  deputations,  leaving  Ormoiid  master  of  the 
position  for  some  time  longer. 

The  agents  and  friends  of  the  Irish  Catholics  on  the  Continent 
were  greatly  embarrassed,  and  not  a  little  disheartened  by  the 
cessation.  At  Paris,  at  Brussels,  at  Madrid,  but  above  all  at 
Rome,  it  was  regretted,  blamed,  or  denounced,  according  to 
the  temper  or  the  insight  of  the  discontented.  His  Catholic 
Majesty  had  some  time  before  remitted  a  contribution  of  20,000 
dollars  to  the  Confederate  Treasury  ;  one  of  Richelieu's  last  acts 
was  to  invite  Con,  son  of  Hugh  O'Neil,  to  the  French  Court,  and 
to  permit  the  shipment  of  some  pieces  of  ordnance  to  Ireland  ; 
from  Rome,  the  celebrated  Franciscan,  Father  Luke  Wadding,  had 
remitted  26,000  dollars,  and  the  Nuncio  Scarampi,  had  brought 
further  donations.  The  facility,  therefore,  with  which  the  cessa' 
tion  had  been  agreed  upon,  against  the  views  of  the  agents  of  the 
Catholic  powers  at  Kilkenny,  without  any  apparently  sufficient 
cause,  had  certainly  a  tendency  to  check  and  chill  the  enthusiasm 
of  those  Catholic  Princes  who  had  been  taught  to  look  on  the 
insurrection  of  the  Irish  as  a  species  of  Crusade.  Remonstrances, 
warm,  eloquent,  and  passionate,  were  poured  in  upon  the  most 
influential  members  of  the  Supreme  Council,  from  those  who  had 
either  by  delegation,  or  from  their  own  free  will,  befriended  them 
abroad.  These  remonstrances  reached  that  powerful  body  at 
Waterford,  at  Limerick,  or  at  Galway,  whither  they  had  gone  on 
to  official  visitation,  to  hear  complaints,  settle  controversies,  and 
44* 


522  POPULAR   BI8TOBT    OT   IRELAND. 

provide  for  the  better  coDection  of  the  assessments  imposed  on 
each  Province. 

An  incident  which  occurred  in  Ulster,  soon  startled  the  Supreme 
Council  from  their  pacific  occupations.  General  Munroe,  having 
proclaimed  that  all  Protestants  within  his  command  should  take 
"  the  solemn  league  and  covenant,"  three  thousand  of  that  re- 
ligion, still  loyalists,  met  at  Belfast,  to  deliberate  on  their  answer. 
Munroe,  however,  apprised  of  their  intentions,  marched  rapidly 
irom  Carrickfergus,  entered  the  town  under  cover  of  night,  and 
drove  out  the  loyal  Protestants  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  The 
fugitives  threw  themselves  into  Lisburn,  and  Munroe  appointed 
Colonel  Hume  as  Governor  of  Belfast,  for  the  Parliaments  of 
Scotland  and  England.  Castlehaven,  with  O'Neill  still  second  in 
command,  was  now  despatched  northward  against  the  army  of 
the  Covenant.  Munroe  who  had  advanced  to  the  borders  of 
Meath,  as  if  to  meet  them,  contented  himself  with  gathering 
in  great  herds  of  cattle ;  as  they  advanced  he  slowly  fell  back 
before  them  through  Louth  and  Armagh,  to  his  original  head- 
quarters ;  Castlehaven  then  returned  with  the  main  body  of  the 
Confederate  troops  to  Kilkenny,  and  O'Neill,  depressed  but  not 
dismayed,  carried  his  contingent  to  their  former  position  at  Bet 
turbet. 

In  Munster,  a  new  Parliamentary  party  had  time  to  form  it* 
combinations  under  the  shelter  of  the  cessation.  The  Earl  of 
Inchiquin,  who  had  lately  failed  to  obtain  the  Presidency  of  Miuv 
ster  from  the  King  at  Oxford,  and  the  Lord  Broghill,  son  of  the 
great  Southern  Undertaker — the  first  Earl  of  Cork, — were  at  the 
head  of  this  movement.  Under  pretence  that  the  quarters  allot- 
ted them  by  the  cessation  had  been  violated,  they  contrived  to 
seize  upon  Cork,  Youghal,  and  Kinsale.  At  Cork,  they  publicly 
executed  Father  Mathews,  a  Friar,  and  proceeding  from  violence 
to  violence  they  drove  from  the  three  places  all  the  Catholic  in- 
habitants. They  then  forwarded  a  petition  to  the  King,  beseech- 
ing him  to  declare  the  Catholics  "  rebels,"  and  declaring  their 
ovn  determination  to  "  die  a  thousand  deaths  sooner  than  eonde- 
•cend  to  any  peace  with  them."  At  the  same  time  they  entered 
into,  or  avowed,  their  correspondence  with  the  English  Parlia- 
ment, which  naturally  enough  encouraged,  and  assisted  then* 


POF7LAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  523 

The  Sapreme  Council  met  these  demonstrations  with  more  strin- 
gent instructions  to  General  Purcell,  now  their  chief  in  command, 
(Barry  having  retired  on  account  of  advanced  age,)  to  observe 
the  cessation,  and  to  punish  severely  every  infraction  of  it.  At 
the  same  time  they  permitted  or  directed  Purcell  to  enter  into  a 
truce  with  Inchiquin  till  the  following  April ;  and  then  they  rested 
on  their  arms,  in  religious  fidelity  to  the  engagements  they  had 
signed  at  Castlemartin. 

The  twelve-months'  truce  was  fast  drawing  to  a  close,  when  the 
battle  of  Marston  Moor  stimulated  Ormond  to  effect  a  renewal 
of  the  treaty.  Accordingly,  at  his  request,  Lord  Muskerry,  and 
five  other  commissioners,  left  Kilkenny  on  the  last  day  of  August 
for  Dublin.  Between  them  and  the  Viceroy,  the  cessation  wag 
prolonged  till  the  first  of  December  following ;  and  when  that 
day  came,  it  was  further  protracted,  as  would  appear,  for  three 
months,  by  which  time,  (March,  1 645,)  Ormond  informed  them 
that  he  had  powers  from  the  King  to  treat  for  a  permanent  settle- 
ment. 

During  the  six  months  that  the  original  cessation  was  thus 
protracted  by  the  policy  of  Ormond,  the  supreme  council  sent 
abroad  new  agents,  "  to  know  what  they  had  to  trust  to,  and 
what  succors  they  might  really  depend  on  from  abroad." 
Father  Hugh  Bourke  was  sent  to  Spain,  and  Sir  Richard  Belling 
to  Rome,  where  Innocent  X.  had  recently  succeeded  to  that 
generous  friend  of  the  Catholic  Irish,  Urban  VIII.  The  voyage  of 
these  agents  was  not  free  from  hazard,  for,  whereas,  before  the 
cessation,  the  privateers  commissioned  by  the  council,  sheltered  and 
supplied  in  the  Irish  harbors,  had  kept  the  southern  coast  clear 
of  hostile  shipping,  now  that  they  had  Inen  withdrawn  under  the 
truce,  the  parliamentary  cruisers  had  the  channel  all  to  them- 
selves.  "Waterford  and  Wexford — the  two  chief  Catholic  ports 
in  that  quarter — instead  of  seeing  their  waters  crowded  with 
prizes,  now  began  to  tremble  for  their  own  safety.  The  strong 
fort  of  Duncannon,  on  the  Wexford  side  of  Waterford  harbor, 
was  corruptly  surrendered  by  Lord  Esmond,  to  Inchiquin  and 
(  the  Puritans.  After  a  ten-weeks'  siege,  however,  and  the  expen- 
diture of  19,000  pounds  of  powder,  the  Confederates  retook  the 
fort,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  made  for  its  relief.  Esmond,  old 


524         POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 

ami  blind,  escaped  by  a  timely  death  the  penalty  due  to  hii 
treason.  Following  up  this  success,  Castlehaven  rapidly  Invested 
other  southern  strongholds  in  possession  of  the  same  party. 
Cappoquin,  Lismore,  Mallow,  Mitchelstown,  Doneraile  and  Lis- 
carroll  surrendered  on  articles ;  Rostellan,  commanded  by  Inchi- 
quin's  brother,  was  stormed  and  taken ;  Brogkill  was  closely  be- 
sieged  in  Youghall,  but,  being  relieved  from  sea,  successfully 
defended  himself.  In  another  quarter,  the  Parliament  TIS 
equally  active.  To  compensate  for  the  loss  of  Galway,  they  had 
instructed  the  younger  Coote,  on  whom  they  had  conferred  the 
Presidency  of  Connaught,  to  withdraw  the  regiment  of  Sir  Frede- 
rick Hamilton,  and  400  other  troops,  from  the  command  of 
Alunroe,  and  with  these,  Sir  Robert  Stewart's  forces,  and  such 
others  aa  he  could  himself  raise,  to  invest  Sligo.  Against  the 
force  thus  collected,  Sligo  could  not  hope  to  contend,  and  soon, 
from  that  town,  as  from  a  rallying  and  resting  place,  2,000  horse- 
men were  daily  launched  upon  the  adjoining  country.  Lord 
Olanrickarde,  the  royal  president  of  the  province,  as  unpopular  as 
trimmers  usually  are  in  times  of  crisis,  was  unable  to  make  head 
against  this  new  danger.  But  the  Confederates,  under  Sir  James 
Dillon,  ami  Dr.  O'Kealy.tlie  heroic  archbishop  of  Tuam,  moved  by 
the  pitiful  appeals  of  the  Sligo  people,  boldly  endeavored  to  re- 
cover the  town.  They  succeeded  in  entering  the  walls,  but  were 
subsequently  repulsed  and  routed.  The  Archbishop  was  captured 
and  tortured  to  death ;  some  of  the  noblest  families  of  the  pro- 
vince and  of  Meath  had  also  to  mourn  their  chiefs ;  and  several 
valuable  papers,  found  or  pretended  to  be  found  in  the  Arch- 
bishop's carriage,  were  eagerly  given  to  the  press  of  London  by 
the  Parliament  of  England.  This  tragedy  at  Sligo  occored  oa 
Sunday.  October  26th,  IMS. 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OP   IRELiND.  626 


CHAPTER  VIH. 

aUUfOMAN'8  TREATY. THE   NEW   NUNCIO   RDTUCOHCI.— o'lfMLL** 

POSITION. THE    BATTLE    OF    BENBUBB. 

OEMOND  had  amused  the  Confederates  with  negotiations  for  a 
permanent  peace  and  settlement,  from  spring  till  midsummer, 
when  Charles,  dissatisfied  with  these  endless  delays,  despatched 
to  Ireland  a  more  hopeful  embassador.  This  was  Herbert,  Earl 
of  Glamorgan,  one  of  the  few  Catholics  remaining  among  the 
English  nobility ;  son  and  heir  to  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  .and 
son  in-law  to  Henry  O'Brien,  Earl  of  Thomond.  Of  a  family  de- 
voutly attached  to  the  royal  cause,  to  which  it  is  said  they  had 
contributed  not  less  than  £200,000,  Glamorgan's  religion,  hia 
rank,  his  Irish  connections,  the  intimate  confidence  of  the  King 
which  he  was  known  to  possess,  all  marked  out  his  embassy  aa 
one  of  the  utmost  importance. 

The  story  of  this  mission  has  been  perplexed  and  darkened  by 
many  controversies.  But  the  general  verdict  of  historians  seems 
now  to  be,  that  Charles  I.,  whose  many  good  qualities  as  a  man 
and  a  ruler  are  cheerfully  admitted  on  all  hands,  was  yet  utterly 
deficient  in  downright  good  faith ;  that  duplicity  was  his  besetting 
sin ;  and  that  Glamorgan's  embassy  is  one,  but  only  one,  of  the 
•trongest  evidences  of  that  ingrained  duplicity. 

It  may  help  to  the  clearer  understanding  of  the  negotiations 
conducted  by  Glamorgan  in  Ireland,  if  we  give  in  the  first  place 
the  exact  dates  of  the  first  transactions.  The  Earl  arrived  at 
Dublin  about  the  1st  of  August,  and,  after  an  interview  with 
Ormond,  proceeded  to  Kilkenny.  On  the  28th  of  that  month, 
preliminary  articles  were  agreed  to  and  signed  by  the  Earl  on 
behalf  of  the  King,  and  by  Lords  Mountgarrett  and  Muskerry  on 
behalf  of  the  Confederates.  It  was  necessary,  it  seems,  to  get  tha 
concurrence  of  the  Viceroy  to  these  terms,  and  accordingly  the 
negotiators  on  both  sides  repaired  to  Dublin.  Here,  Ormond 
contrived  to  detain  them  ten  long  weeks  in  discussions  on  the  ar- 
ticles relating  to  religion;  it  was  the  12th  of  November  when 


528  FOPULIR    HISTORY    Of   IRELAND. 

they  returned  to  Kilkenny,  with  a  much  modified  treaty.  On  th» 
next  day,  the  13th,  the  new  Papal  Nuncio,  a  prelate  who,  by  his 
rank,  his  eloquence  and  his  imprudence,  was  destined  to  exercise 
a  powerful  influence  on  the  Catholic  councils,  made  his  public 
entry  into  that  city. 

This  personage  was  John  Baptist  Rinuccini,  Archbishop  oi 
Fermo,  in  the  Marches  of  Ancona,  which  see  he  had  preferred  to 
the  more  exalted  dignity  of  Florence.  By  birth  a  Tuscan,  the 
new  Nuncio  had  distinguished  himself  from  boyhood  by  his  pas- 
sionate attachment  to  his  studies.  At  Bologna,  at  Perugia,  and 
at  Rome,  his  intense  application  brought  him  early  honors,  and 
early  physical  debility.  His  health,  partially  restored  in  the  se- 
clusion of  his  native  valley  of  the  Arno,  enabled  him  to  return 
again  to  Rome.  Enjoying  the  confidence  of  Gregory  XV.  and 
Urban  VIII.,  he  was  named  successively,  Clerk  of  the  Chamber, 
Secretary  of  the  Congregation  of  Rites,  and  Archbishop  of  Fermo. 
This  was  the  prelate  chosen  by  the  new  Pope,  Innocent  X.,  for  the 
nunciature  in  Ireland :  a  man  of  noble  birth,  in  the  fifty-third 
year  of  his  age,  of  uncertain  bodily  health,  of  great  learning,  es- 
pecially as  a  canonist,  of  a  fiery  Italian  temperament, — "  regular 
and  even  austere  in  his  life,  and  far  from  any  taint  of  avarice  oi 
corruption," — such  was  the  admission  of  his  enemies. 

Leaving  Italy  in  May,  accompanied  by  the  Dean  of  Fermo,  who 
has  left  us  a  valuable  record  of  the  embassy,  his  other  house- 
hold officers,  several  Italian  noblemen,  and  Sir  Richard  Belling, 
the  special  agent  at  Rome,  the  Nuncio  by  way  of  Genoa  and  Mar- 
seilles reached  Paris.  In  France  he  was  detained  nearly  five 
months,  in  a  fruitless  attempt  to  come  to  some  definite  arrange- 
ment as  to  the  conduct  of  the  Catholic  war,  through  Queen  Hen- 
rietta Maria,  then  resident  with  the  young  Prince  of  Wales — after- 
wards Charles  II, — at  the  French  court.  The  Queen,  like  most 
persons  of  her  rank,  overwhelmed  with  adversity,  was  often  un- 
reasonably suspicious  and  exacting.  Her  sharp  woman's  tongue 
did  not  spare  those  on  whom  her  anger  fell,  and  there  were  not 
wanting  those,  who,  apprehensive  of  the  effect  in  England  of  her 
negotiating  directly  with  a  papal  minister,  did  their  utmost  to 
delay,  or  to  break  off  their  correspondence.  A  nice  point  of  court 
etiquette  further  embarrassed  the  buiineM.  The  Nuncio  could 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  527 

not  uncover  his  head  before  the  Queen,  and  Henrietta  would  not 
receive  him  otherwise  than  uncovered.  Aftor  three  months  lost 
in  Paris,  he  was  obliged  to  proceed  on  his  journey,  contenting 
himself  with  an  exchange  of  complimentary  messages  with  the 
Queen,  whom  even  the  crushing  blow  of  Naseby  could  not  induce 
to  waive  a  point  of  etiquette  with  a  Priest. 

On  reaching  Eochelle,  where  he  intended  to  take  shipping,  a 
further  delay  of  six  weeks  took  place,  as  was  supposed  by  the 
machinations  of  Cardinal  Mazarin.  Finally,  the  Nuncio  succeed- 
ed in  purchasing  a  frigate  of  26  guns,  the  San  Pielro,  on  which 
he  embarked  with  all  his  Italian  suite,  Sir  Richard  Belling,  and 
several  Franco-Irish  officers.  He  had  also  on  board,  a  considerable 
sum  in  Spanish  gold,  (including  another  contribution  of  86,000 
dollars  from  Father  Wadding,)  2,000  muskets,  2,000  cartouch  belts, 
4,000  swords,  2,000  pike  heads,  400  brace  of  pistols,  20,000  pounds 
of  powder,  with  match,  shot  and  other  stores.  "Weighing  from 
St.  Martin's  in  the  Isle  of  Rhe,  the  San  Pietro  doubled  the  Land's 
End,  and  stood  over  towards  the  Irish  coast.  The  third  day  out 
they  were  chased  for  several  hours  by  two  Parliamentary  cruis- 
ers, but  escaped  under  cover  of  the  night ;  on  the  fourth  morning, 
being  the  21st  of  October,  they  found  themselves  safely  embayed 
in  the  waters  of  Kenmare,  on  the  coast  of  Kerry. 

The  first  intelligence  which  reached  the  Nuncio  on  landing,  was 
the  negotiation  of  Glamorgan,  of  which  he  had  already  heard, 
while  waiting  a  ship  at  Rochelle.  The  next  was  the  surrender  by 
the  Earl  of  Thomond,  of  his  noble  old  castle  of  Bnnratty,  com- 
manding the  Shannon  within  six  miles  of  Limerick,  to  the  Puri- 
tans. This  surrender  had,  however,  determined  the  resolution  of 
the  city  of  Limerick,  which  hitherto  hnd  taken  no  part  in  the 
war,  to  open  its  gates  to  the  Confederates.  The  loss  of  Bunratty 
was  more  than  compensated  by  the  gaining  of  one  of  the  finest 
and  strongest  towns  in  Munster,  and  to  Limerick  accordingly  the 
Nincio  paid  the  compliment  of  his  first  visit.  Here  he  received 
the  mitre  of  the  diocese  in  dutiful  submission  from  the  hands  of 
the  Bishop,  on  entering  the  Cathedral ;  and  hore  he  celebrated  A 
solemn  requiem  mass  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Tuam,  lately  slain  before  Sligo.  From  Limerick,  borne  along 
on  his  litter,  such  was  the  feebleness  of  his  health,  he  advanced 


B28  POPULAR   HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 

by  slow  stages  to  Kilkenny,  escorted  by  a  guard  of  h  onor,  de» 
patched  on  that  duty,  by  the  Supreme  Council. 

The  pomp  and  splendor  of  his  public  entry  into  the  Catholi* 
capital  was  a  striking  spectacle.  The  previous  night  he  slept  ul 
•  village  three  miles  from  the  city,  for  which  he  set  out  early  OB 
the  morning  of  the  13th  of  November,  escorted  by  his  guard,  and 
a  vast  multitude  of  the  people.  Five  delegates  from  the  Suprem* 
Council  accompanied  him.  A  band  of  fifty  students  mounted  01 
horseback  met  him  on  the  way,  and  their  leader,  crowned  with  lau- 
rel, recited  some  congratulatory  Latin  verses.  At  the  city  gate  he 
left  the  litter  and  mounted  a  horse  richly  housed ;  here  the  procession 
of  the  clergy  and  the  city  guilds  awaited  him  ;  at  the  Market  Cross 
a  Latin  oration  was  delivered  in  his  honor,  to  which  he  graciously 
replied  in  the  same  language.  From  the  Cross  he  was  escorted  to 
the  Cathedral,  at  the  door  of  which  he  was  received  by  the  aged 
Bishop,  Dr.  David  Rothe.  At  the  high  altar  he  intonated  the  Te 
Drum,  and  gave  the  multitude  the  apostolic  benediction.  Then  he 
was  conducted  to  his  lodgings,  where  he  was  soon  waited  upon  by 
Lord  Muskcrry  and  General  Preston,  who  brought  him  to  KiL 
kenny  Castle,  where  in  the  great  gallery,  which  elicited  even  a 
Florentine's  admiration,  he  was  received  in  stately  formality  by 
the  President  of  the  Council — Lord  Mountgarret.  Another  Latin 
oration  on  the  nature  of  his  embassy  was  delivered  by  the  Nun- 
cio, responded  to  by  Heber,  Bishop  of  Clogher,  and  so  the  cere- 
mony  of  reception  ended. 

The  Nuncio  brought  from  rteris  a  new  subjoct  of  difficulty,  in 
the  form  of  a  memorial  from  the  English  Catholics  at  Rome,  pray- 
ing that  they  might  be  included  in  the  terms  of  any  peace  which 
might  be  made  by  their  Irish  co-religionists  with  the  King 
Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  the  members  of  the  same 
persecuted  church  should  make  common  cause,  but  nothing  could 
he  more  impolitic  than  some  of  the  demands  made  in  the  English 
.memorial.  They  wished  it  to  be  stipulated  with  Charles,  that  he 
would  allow  a  distinct  military  organization  to  the  English  and 
Irish  Catholics  in  his  service,  under  Catholic  general  officers, 
subject  only  to  the  King's  commands,  meaning  thereby,  if  they 
nit-mit  vh  it  they  said,  independence  of  all  parliamentary  an<i 
ministerial  control.  Yet  several  of  the  stipula/ion*  of  toil 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  529 

memorial,  were  after  many  modifications  and  discussions,  adopted 
by  Glamorgan  into  his  original  articles,  and  under  the  treaty  thu« 
ratified,  the  Confederates  bound  themselves  to  despatch  10.000 
men,  fully  armed  and  equipped,  to  the  relief  of  Chester  and  the 
general  succor  of  the  King  in  England.  Towards  the  close  of 
December,  the  English  Earl  with  two  Commissioners  from  the 
Supreme  Council,  set  forth  for  Dublin,  to  obtain  the  Viceroy's 
sanction  to  the  amended  treaty.  But  in  Dublin  a  singular  coun- 
terplot in  this  perplexed  drama  awaited  them.  On  St.  Stephen's 
day,  while  at  dinner,  Glamorgan  was  arrested  by  Ormond,  on  a 
charge  of  having  exceeded  his  instructions,  and  confined  a  close 
prisoner  in  the  castle.  The  gates  of  the  city  were  closed,  and 
every  means  taken  to  give  eclat  to  this  extraordinary  proceeding. 
The  Confederate  Commissioners  were  carried  to  the  castle,  and 
told  they  might  congratulate  themselves  on  not  sharing  the  cell 
prepared  for  Glamorgan.  "  Go  back,"  they  were  told,  "  to  Kil- 
kenny and  tell  the  President  of  the  Council,  that  the  Protestants 
of  England  would  fling  the  King's  person  out  at  his  window,  if 
they  believed  it  possible  that  he  lent  himself  to  such  an  undertaking." 
The  Commissioners  accordingly  went  back  and  delivered  their 
errand,  with  a  full  account  of  all  the  circumstances.  Fortunately, 
he  General  Assembly  had  been  called  for  an  early  day  in  January 
i646,  at  Kilkenny.  When,  therefore,  they  met,  their  first  resolu- 
tion was  to  despatch  Sir  Robert  Talbot  to  the  Viceroy,  with  a 
letter  suspending  all  negotiations  till  the  Earl  of  Glamorgan  waa 
set  at  liberty.  By  the  end  of  January,  on  the  joint  bail,  for 
£40,000,  of  the  Earls  of  Clanrrickarde  and  Kildare,  the  English 
envoy  was  enlarged,  and  to  the  still  further  amazement  of  the 
simpler-minded  Catholics,  on  his  arrival  at  Kilkenny  he  justified, 
rather  than  censured  the  action  of  Ormond.  To  most  observers 
it  appeared  that  these  noblemen  understood  each  other  only  too 
well 

From  January  till  June,  Kilkenny  was  delivered  over  to  cabals, 
intrigues,  and  recriminations.  There  was  an  "  old  Irish  party," 
to  which  the  Nuncio  inclined,  and  an  "  Anglo-Irish  party  "* 
headed  by  Mountgarrett  and  the  majority  of  the  council.  Tha 
former  sticrmntized  the  latter  as  Ormondists,  and  the  latter  ro- 
te rted  on  them  wnth  the  name  of  the  Nuncio's  party.  In  Feb- 
45 


6dO  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

ruary,  came  news  of  a  foreign  treaty  made  at  Rome  between  Sh 
Kenelra  Digby  and  the  Pope's  Ministers,  most  favorable  to  the 
English  and  Irish  Catholics.  On  the  28th  of  March,  a  final  modi- 
fiuition  of  Glamorgan's  articles,  reduced  to  thirty  in  number,  was 
signed  by  Orrnond  for  the  King,  and  Lord  Muskerry  and  the 
other  Commissioners  for  the  Confederates.  These  thirty  articles 
conceded,  in  fact,  all  the  most  essential  claims  of  the  Irish ;  they 
secured  them  equal  rights  as  to  property,  in  the  Army,  in  the 
Universities,  and  at  the  Bar ;  they  gave  them  seats  in  both  Houses 
and  on  the  Bench ;  they  authorized  a  special  commission  of  Oyer 
and  Terminer,  composed  wholly  of  Confederates ;  they  declared 
that  '  the  independency  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  on  that  of 
England,'  should  be  decided  by  declaration  of  both  houses 
'  agreeably  to  the  laws  of  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland.' "  In  short, 
this  final  form  of  Glamorgan's  treaty  gave  the  Irish  Catholics,  in 
1646,  all  that  was  subsequently  obtained  either  for  the  church  or 
the  country,  in  1782,  17(J3,  or  1829.  Though  some  conditions 
were  omitted,  to  which  Rinuccini  and  a  majority  of  the  Prelates 
attached  importance,  Glamorgan's  treaty  was,  upon  the  whole, 
a  charter  upon  which  a  free  church  and  a  free  people  might  well 
have  stood,  as  the  fundamental  law  of  their  religious  and  civil 
liberties. 

The  treaty,  thus  concluded  at  the  end  of  March,  was  to  lie  as 
an  escroll  in  the  hands  of  the  Marquis  of  Clanrickarde  till  the  1st 
of  May,  awaiting  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  with  the  Roman  protocol 
And  then,  notwithstanding  the  dissuasions  of  Rinuccini  to  the 
contrary,  it  was  to  be  kept  secret  from  the  world,  though  some  of 
its  obligations  were  expected  to  be  at  once  fulfilled  on  their  side, 
by  the  Catholics.  The  Supreme  Council,  ever  eager  to  exhibit 
their  loyalty,  gathered  together  6000  troops  for  the  relief  of 
Chester  and  the  service  of  the  King  in  England,  so  so«n  as  both 
treaties — the  Irish  and  the  Roman — should  be  signed  by  Charles. 
While  so  waiting,  they  I  esieged  and  took  Bunra  '|ty  castle — already 
referred  to — but  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  did  not  arrive  with  May, 
and  they  now  learned,  to  their  renewed  amazement,  that  Glamor- 
gan's whole  negotiation  was  disclaimed  by  the  King  in  England. 
In  the  same  interval  Chester  fell,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to 
throw  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Scottish  Parliament,  who 
\ 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  531 

tumjndered  him  for  a  price  to  their  English  coadjutors.  Thesa 
tidings  reached  Ireland  during  May,  and,  varied  with  the  capture 
of  an  occasional  fortress,  lost  or  won,  occupied  all  men's  minds. 
But  the  first  days  of  June  were  destined  to  bring  with  them  a 
victory  of  national — of  European  importance — won  by  Owen 
O'Neill,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  his  grand-uncle's  famoua 
battlefield  of  the  Yellow-ford. 

During  these  three  years  of  intrigue  and  negotiation,  the  posi- 
tion of  General  O'Neill  was  hazardous  and  difficult  in  the  extreme. 
One  campaign  he  had  served  under  a  stranger,  as  second  on  his 
own  soil.  In  the  other  two  he  was  fettered  by  the  terms  of 
"  cessation  "  to  his  own  quarters ;  and  to  add  to  his  embarras- 
ments,  his  impetuous  kinsman  Sir  Phelim,  brave,  rash,  and  am- 
bitious, recently  married  to  a  daughter  of  his  ungenerous  rival, 
General  Preston,  was  incited  to  thwart  and  obstruct  him  amongst 
their  mutual  clansmen  and  connections.  The  only  recompense 
which  seems  to  have  been  awarded  to  him,  was  the  confidence  of 
the  Nuncio,  who,  either  from  that  knowledge  of  character  in 
which  the  Italians  excel,  or  from  bias  received  from  some  other 
source,  at  once  singled  him  out  as  the  man  of  his  people.  What 
portion  of  the  Nuncio's  supplies  reached  the  Northern  General  we 
know  not,  but  in  the  beginning  of  June,  he  felt  himself  in.a  posi- 
tion to  bring  on  an  engagement  with  Monroe,  who,  lately  reinforced 
by  both  Parliaments,  had  marched  out  of  Carrickfergus,  into  Ty- 
rone, with  a  view  of  penetrating  as  far  south  as  Kilkenny.  On 
the  4th  day  of  June,  the  two  armies  encountered  at  Benburb,  on 
the  little  river  Blackwater,  about  six  miles  north  of  Armagh,  and 
the  most  signal  victory  of  the  war  came  to  recompense  the  long- 
enduring  patience  of  O'Neill. 

The  battle  of  Benburb  has  been  often  and  well  described.  In 
a  naturally  strong  position — with  this  leader  the  choice  of  ground 
seems  to  have  been  a  first  consideration — the  Irish,  for  four  houre^ 
received  and  repulsed  the  various  charges  of  the  Puritan  horse, 
Then  as  the  sun  began  to  descend,  pouring  its  rays  upon  the 
opposing  force,  O'Neill  led  his  whole  force — five  thousand  men 
against  eight — to  the  attack.  One  terrible  onset  swept  away 
every  trace  of  resistance.  There  were  counted  on  the  field,  8,248 
of  the  Covenanters  and  of  the  Catholics,  but  70  killed  and  100 


532  POPULAR    HISTOBY    OF    IKELAND. 

wounded.  Lord  Ardes,  and  21  Scottish  officers,  32  standard!, 
1 600  draught  horses,  and  all  the  guns  and  tents,  were  captured. 
Munroe  fled  in  panic  to  Lisburn,  and  thence  to  Carrickfergua, 
where  he  shut  himself  np,  till  he  could  obtain  reinforcements. 
O'Neill  forwarded  the  captured  colors  to  the  Nuncio,  at  Limerick, 
by  whom  they  were  solemnly  placed  in  the  choir  of  St.  Mary"a 
Cathedral,  and  afterwards,  at  the  request  of  Pope  Innocent,  sent 
to  Rome.  Te  J>eum  was  chanted  in  the  Confederate  Capital; 
penitential  psalms  were  sung  in  the  Northern  fortress.  "  Th* 
Lord  of  Hosts,"  wrote  Munroe,  "  had  rubbed  shame  on  our  faces, 
till  once  we  are  humbled ;"  O'Neill  emblazoned  the  cross  and 
keys  on  his  banner  with  the  Red  Hand  of  Ulster,  and  openly  r« 
Burned  the  title  originally  chosen  by  his  adherents  at  Clones,  "  the 
Catholic  Army." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM    THE   BATTLE   OF   BENBURB  TILL   THE    LANDING   OF   CROMWELL 
AT   DUBLIN. 

THI  Nuncio,  elated  by  the  great  victory  of  O'Neill,  to  which  h  • 
felt  he  had  personally  contributed  by  his  seasonable  supplies 
provoked  und  hritated  by  Ormond's  intrigues  and  the  King* 
insincerity,  rushed  with  all  the  ardor  of  his  character  into  mak- 
ing the  war  an  uncompromising  Catholic  crusade.  In  this  line 
of  conduct,  he  was  supported  by  the  Archbishops  of  Dublin  and 
Caslrel,  by  ten  of  the  Bishops,  including  the  eminent  Prelates  01 
Limerick,  Killalla,  Ferns,  and  Clogher;  the  Procurator  of  Ar 
tnagh;  nine  Vicars-general,  and  the  Superiors  of  the  Jesuits 
Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and  Augustinians.  The  peace  party, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  nol  without  clerical  adherents,  but  they 
were  inconsiderable,  as  to  influence  and  numbers.  They  were 
now  become  aa  anxious  to  publish  the  Thirty  Articles  agreed 
upon  at  the  end  of  March,  as  they  then  were  to  keep  them  secret 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  683 

Accordingly,  with  Ormoud's  consent,  copies  of  the  treaty  were 
Bent  early  in  August  to  the  sheriffs  of  counties,  mayors  of  cities, 
and  other  leading  persons,  with  instructions  to  proclaim  it  pub- 
licly in  due  form ;  upon  hearing  which,  the  Nuncio  and  his  sup- 
porters of  the  clergy,  secular  and  regular,  assembled  in  council 
at  Waterford,  on  the  12th  of  August,  solemnly  declared  that  they 
gave  no  consent,  and  would  not,  "  to  any  peace,"  that  did  not 
grant  "  further,  surer  and  safer  considerations  for  their  religion, 
king  and  country,"  according  to  the  original  odth  of  the  Confed- 
eracy. 

The  rupture  between  the  clergy  and  the  laymen  of  the  council 
was  now  complete.  The  prelates  who  signed  the  decree  of  Water- 
ford,  of  course,  thereby  withdrew  from  the  body  whose  action 
they  condemned.  In  vain  the  learned  Darcy  and  the  eloquent 
Plunkett  went  to  and  fro  between  the  two  bodies :  concord  and 
confidence  were  at  an  end.  The  synod  decided  to  address  Lord 
Mountgarret  in  future  as  president  of  "  the  late  supreme  council." 
The  heralds  who  attempted  to  publish  the  Thirty  Articles  in 
Clonmel  and  Waterford  were  hooted  or  stoned ;  while  in  Lime- 
rick, the  mayor,  endeavoring  to  protect  them,  shared  this  rough 
usage.  Ormond,  who  was  at  Kilkenny  at  the  critical  moment  of 
the  breach,  did  his  utmost  to  sustain  the  resolution  of  those  who 
were  stigmatized  by  his  name ;  while  the  Nuncio,  suspicious  of 
Preston,  wrote  urgently  to  O'Neill  to  lead  his  army  into  Leinster, 
and  remove  the  remnant  of  the  late  council  from  Kilkenny.  All 
that  those  who  held  a  middle  course  between  the  extremes  could 
do,  was  to  advocate  an  early  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly ; 
but  various  exigencies  delayed  this  'much-desired  meeting,  till  the 
10th  day  of  January,  1647. 

The  five  intervening  months  were  months  of  triumph  for  Ri- 
nuccini.  Lord  Digby  appeared  at  Dublin  as  a  special  agent  from 
the  King,  to  declare  his  consent  to  Glamorgan's  original  terms; 
but  Ormond  still  insisted  that  he  had  no  authority  to  go  beyond 
the  Thirty  Articles.  Charles  himself  wrote  privately  to  Rinuc- 
cini,  promising  to  confirm  everything  which  Glamorgan  had 
proposed,  as  soon  as  he  should  come  into  "  the  Nuncio's  hands." 
Ormonr!,  after  a  fruitless  attempt  to  convert  O'Neill  to  his  views, 
had  mar  ;hed  southward  with  a  guard  of  1,500  foot  and  500  horse, 
45* 


B3-i  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

to  endeavor  to  conciliate  the  towns,  and  to  win  over  the  Earl  ol 
Inchiquin.  In  both  these  objects  he  failed.  He  found  O'Neill 
before  him  in  his  county  palatinate  of  Tipperary,  and  the  mayor 
of  Cashel  informed  him  that  he  dared  not  allow  him  into  that 
city,  for  fear  of  displeasing  the  northern  general.  Finding  him- 
eelf  thus  unexpectedly  within  a  few  miles  of  "  the  Catholic  Army," 
10,000  strong,  the  viceroy  retreated  precipitately  through  Kil- 
kenny, Carlo w,  and  Kildare,  to  Dublin.  Lord  Digby,  who  had 
accompanied  him,  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  cajole  the 
Synod  of  Waterford,  made  the  beat  of  his  way  back  to  France ; 
the  Marquis  of  Clanrickarde,  who  had  also  been  of  the  expedition, 
chared  the  flight  of  Ormond.  Towards  the  middle  of  September, 
O'Neill's  army,  after  capturing  Roscrea  Castle,  marched  to  Kil- 
kenny, and  encamped  near  that  city.  His  forces  had  now  aug- 
mented to  12,000  foot  and  1,500  horse;  on  the  18th  of  the  mouth, 
he  escorted  the  Nuncio  in  triumph  into  Kilkenny,  where  the 
Ormondist  members  of  the  old  council  were  committed  to  close 
custody  in  the  castle.  A  new  council,  of  four  bishops  and  eight 
laymen,  was  established  on  the  26th,  with  the  Nuncio  as  pre- 
sident ;  Glamorgan  succeeded  Castlehaven,  who  had  gone  over  to 
Ormond,  as  commander  in  Munster ;  while  O'Neill  and  Preston 
were  ordered  to  unite  their  forces  for  the  siege  of  Dublin.  The 
sanguine  Italian  dreamt  of  nothing  less,  for  the  moment,  than 
the  creation  of  viceroys,  the  deliverance  of  the  King,  and  the 
complete  restoration  of  the  ancient  religion. 

O'Neill  and  Preston  by  different  routes,  on  which  they  were 
delayed  in  taking  several  garrisoned  posts,  united  at  Lucan  in 
the  valley  of  the  Liffey,  seven  miles  west  of  Dublin,  on  the  9th 
of  November.  Their  j">int  forces  are  represented  at  16,000  fooi. 
and  1 ,600  horse — of  which  Preston  had  about  one-third  and  O'Neill 
the  remainder.  Preston's  headquarters  were  fixed  at  Leixlip,  and 
O'Neill's  at  Newcastle — points  equi-distant,  and  each  within  two 
hours'  march  of  the  capital  Within  the  walls  of  that  city  there 
rr igned  the  utmost  consternation.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  fled 
beyond  seas,  terrified  by  the  fancied  cruelty  of  the  Ulstermen. 
But  Ormond  retained  all  his  presence  of  mind,  and  readiness  of 
resources.  He  entered,  at  first  covertly,  into  arrangements  with 
the  Parliamentarians,  who  sent  him  a  supply  of  po  vder ;  he  wrote 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND.  580 

urgently  to  Munroe  to  make  a  diversion  in  his  favor ;  he  demolished 
the  mills  and  suburbs  which  might  cover  the  approaches  of  the 
enemy ;  he  employed  soldiers,  civilians,  and  even  women,  upon  the 
fortifications, — Lady  Orrnond  setting  an  example  to  her  sex,  in 
rendering  her  feeble  assistance.  Clanrickarde,  in  Preston's  tent, 
was  doing  the  work  of  stimulating  the  old  antipathy  cf  that  Genera] 
towards  O'Neill,  which  led  to  conflicting  advices  in  /ouncil,  and 
some  irritating  personal  altercations.  To  add  to  the  Confederate 
embarrassment,  the  winter  was  the  most  severe  known  for  many 
years ;  from  twenty  to  thirty  sentinels  being  frozen  at  night  at 
their  posts.  On  the  13th  of  November,  while  the  plan  of  the 
Confederate  attack  was  still  undecided,  commissioners  of  the  Par- 
liament arrived  with  ample  stores  in  Dublin  Bay.  On  the  next 
day  they  landed  at  Ringsend  and  entered  into  negotiations  with 
Ormond ;  on  the  16th  the  siege  was  raised,  and  on  the  23d  Or- 
mond  broke  off  the  treaty,  having  unconsciously  saved  Dublin 
from  the  Confederates,  by  the  incorrect  reports  of  supplies  being 
received,  which  were  finally  carried  northward  to  Munroe. 

The  month  of  January  brought  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly.  The  attendance  in  the  great  gallery  of  Ormond  Castle 
was  as  large,  and  the  circumstances  upon  the  whole  as  auspicious 
as  could  be  desired,  in  the  seventh  year  of  such  a  struggle.  The 
members  of  the  old  council,  liberated  from  arrest,  were  hi  their 
places.  O'Neill  and  Preston,  publicly  reconciled,  had  signed  a 
solemn  engagement  to  assist  and  sustain  each  other.  The  Nun. 
cio,  the  Primate  of  Ireland,  and  eleven  bishops  took  their  seats ; 
the  peers  of  oldest  title  in  the  kingdom  were  present,  two  hund' 
red  and  twenty-four  members  represented  the  Commons  of  Ire- 
land, and  among  the  spectators  sat  the  ambassadors  of  France 
and  Spain,  and  of  King  Charles.  The  main  subject  of  discussion 
was  the  sufficiency  of  the  Thirty  Articles,  and  the  propriety  of 
the  ecclesiastical  censure  promulgated  against  those  who  had 
signed  them.  The  debate  embraced  all  that  may  be  said  on  the 
question  of  clerical  interference  in  political  affairs,  on  conditional 
and  unconditional  allegiance,  on  the  power  of  the  Pontiff  speak- 
ing ex  cathedra,  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  temporal  I  overeign_ 
It  was  protracted  through  an  entire  month,  and  ended  with  a 
compromise,  which  declared  that  the  Commissioners  had  acted  in 


(ft 6  POPULAR    HI8TORT    OF    IRELAND. 

good  faith  in  signing  the  articles,  while  it  justified  the  Synod  of 
AVaterford  for  having,  as  judges  of  the  nature  and  intent  of  tin 
oath  of  confederation,  declared  them  insufficient  and  unaccept- 
able. A  new  oath  of  confederacy,  solemnly  binding  the  associ- 
ates uot  to  lay  down  their  arms  till  they  had  established  th«  free 
and  public  exercise  of  religion  as  it  had  existed  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII. ,  was  framed  and  taken  by  the  entire  General  Assem- 
bly ;  the  Thirty  Articles  were  declared  insufficient  and  unaccept- 
able by  all  but  a  minority  of  twelve  votes ;  a  new  Supreme  Coun- 
cil of  twenty  four  was  chosen,  in  whom  there  were  not  known  to 
be  above  four  or  five  partisans  of  Ormond's  policy.  The  church 
plate  throughout  the  kingdom  was  ordered  to  be  coined  into 
money,  and  a  formal  proposal  to  cooperate  with  the  Viceroy  on 
the  basis  of  the  new  oath  was  made,  but  instantly  rejected  ;  among 
other  grounds,  on  this,  that  the  Marquis  had,  at  that  moment,  his 
son  and  other  sureties  with  the  Puritans,  who,  in  the  last  resort, 
he  infinitely  preferred  to  the  Roman  Catholics. 

The  military  events  of  the  year  1647  were  much  more  decisive 
than  its  politics.  Glamorgan  still  commanded  in  Munster,  Pres- 
ton in  Leinster,  and  O'Neill  in  both  Ulster  and  Connaught  The 
nrst  was  confronted  by  Inchiquin,  at  the  head  of  a  corps  of  5,000 
foot  and  1,500  horse,  equipped  and  supplied  by  the  English  Pur- 
itans ;  the  second  saw  the  garrisons  of  Dundalk,  Drogheda  and 
Dublin  reinforced  by  fresh  regiments  of  Covenanters,  and  fed  by 
Parliamentary  supplies  from  the  sea ;  the  latter  was  in  the  heart 
of  Connaught,  organizing  and  recruiting,  and  attempting  all 
things  within  his  reach,  but  hampered  for  money,  clothing  and 
ammunition.  In  Connaught,  O'Neill  was  soon  joined  by  the 
Nuncio,  who,  as  difficulties  thickened,  began  to  lean  more  and 
more  on  the  strong  arm  of  the  victor  of  Benburb ;  in  Munster, 
the  army  refused  to  follow  the  lead  of  Glamorgan,  and  clamored 
for  their  old  chief  Lord  Muskerry ;  finally,  that  division  of  the 
national  troops  was  committed  by  the  council  to  Lord  Taafe,  • 
politician  of  the  school  of  Ormond  and  Clanrickarde,  wholly  des- 
titute of  military  experience.  The  vigorous  Inchiquin  had  little 
difficulty  in  dealing  with  such  an  antagonist;  Cashel  was  taken 
without  a  blow  in  its  defense,  and  a  slaughter  unparalleled  till 
tiit  days  of  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  deluged  its  struts  and 


POPULAK   HISTOBT    OF   IRELAND.  63? 

charches.  At  Knocknos,  later  in  the  autumn  (Nov.  12th),  Taafe 
was  utterly  routed ;  the  gallant  Colkitto,  serving  under  hiui,  la- 
nwntably  sacrificed  after  surrendering  his  sword;  and  Tnchiqoit, 
enabled  to  dictate  a  cessation  covering  Munster — far  less  favo- 
rable  to  Catholics  than  the  truce  of  Castlemartin — to  the  Supreme 
Council.  This  truce  was  signed  at  Dungarvan,  on  the  20th  of 
May,  1648,  and  on  the  27th  the  Nuncio  published  his  solemn 
decree  of  excommunication  against  all  its  aiders  and  abettors,  and 
himself  made  the  best  of  his  way  from  Kilkenny  to  Maryboro', 
where  O'Neill  then  lay. 

The  military  and  political  situation  of  O'Neill,  during  the  latter 
months  of  1647  and  the  whole  of  1648,  was  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  in  which  any  general  had  ever  been  placed.  His 
late  sworn  colleague  Preston  was  now  combineo  with  Inchiquin 
against  him ;  the  royalist  Clanrickarde,  in  the  western  counties, 
pressed  upon  his  rear,  and  captured  his  garrison  in  Athlone ; 
the  Parliamentary  general,  Michael  Jones,  to  whom  Ormond  had 
finally  surrendered  Dublin,  observed  rather  than  impeded  his 
movements  in  Leinster;  the  lay  majority  of  the  Supreme  Council 
proclaimed  him  a  traitor — a  compliment  which  he  fully  returned ; 
the  Nuncio  threw  himself  wholly  into  his  hands  ;  finally,  at  the 
close  of  '48,  Ormond,  returning  from  France  to  Ireland,  con- 
cluded, on  the  17th  of  January,  a  formal  alliance  with  the  lay 
members,  under  the  title  of  "  Commissioners  of  Trust,"  for  the 
King  and  Kingdom ;  and  Rinuccini,  despairing,  perhaps,  of  a 
cause  so  distracted,  sailed  in  his  own  frigate,  from  Galway,  on 
the  23d  of  February.  Thus  did  the  actors  change  their  parts, 
alternately  triumphing  and  fleeing  for  safety.  The  verdict  of 
history  may  condemn  the  Nuncio,  of  whom  we  have  now  seen 
the  last,  for  hi&  imperious  self-will,  and  his  too  ready  recourse  to 
ecclesiastical  censures ;  but  of  his  zeal,  his  probity,  and  bis  dis- 
interestedness, there  can  be,  we  think,  no  second  opinion. 

Under  the  treaty  of  1649 — which  conceded  full  civil  and  reli- 
gious equality  to  the  Roman  Catholics — Ormond  was  once  more 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  government  and  in  command  of  the 
royal  troops.  A  few  days  after  the  signing  of  that  treaty,  news 
of  the  execution  of  Charles  L  having  reached  Ireland,  the  Vice- 
roy proclaimed  the  Prince  of  "Wales  by  the  title  of  Charles  II.,  at 


fed 8  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

Cork  and  YougbaL  Prince  Rupert,  whose  fleet  had  entered  Kin 
Bale,  caused  the  same  ceremony  to  be  gone  through  in  that  an 
cient  borough.  With  Ormond  were  now  cordially  united  Preston, 
Inchiquin,  Clanrickarde,  and  Muskerry,  on  whom  the  lead  of  the 
Supreme  Council  devolved,  in  consequence  of  the  advanced  age 
of  Lord  Mountgarret,  and  the  remainder  of  the  twelve  Com 
missioners  of  Trust.  The  cause  of  the  young  Prince,  an  exile, 
the  eon  of  that  Catholic  queen  from  whom  they  had  expected  so 
much,  was  far  from  unpopular  in  the  southern  half  of  the  island. 
The  Anglican  interest  was  strong  and  widely  diffused  through 
both  Leinster  and  Munster ;  and,  except  a  resolute  prelate,  like 
Dr.  French,  Bishop  of  Ferns,  or  a  brave  band  of  townsmen  like 
those  of  Waterford,  Limerick,  and  Galway,  or  some  remnant  of 
mountain  tribes,  in  Wicklow  and  Tipperary,  the  national,  or 
"  old  Irish  policy,"  had  decidedly  lost  ground  from  the  hour  of 
the  Nuncio's  departure. 

Owen  O'Neill  and  the  Bishops  still  adhered  to  that  national 
policy.  The  former  made  a  three-months'  truce  with  Genera] 
Monck,  who  had  succeeded  Munroe  in  the  command  of  all  the 
Parliamentary  troops  in  his  province.  The  singular  spectacle 
was  even  exhibited  of  Monck  forwarding  supplies  to  O'Neill,  to 
be  used  against  Inchiquin  and  Orrnond,  and  O'Neill  coming  to  the 
rescue  of  Coote,  and  raising  for  him  the  siege  of  Londonderry. 
Inchiquin,  in  rapid  succession,  took  Drogheda,  Trim,  Dundalk, 
Newry,  and  then  rapidly  countermarched  to  join  Ormond  in  be- 
sieging Dublin.  At  Rathmines,  near  the  city,  both  general* 
wore  surprised  and  defeated  by  the  Parliamentarians  under  Mi- 
chael Jones.  Between  desertions,  and  killed  and  wounded,  they 
lost,  by  their  own  account,  nearly  8,000,  and  by  the  Puritan 
accounts  above  6,000  men.  This  action  was  the  virtual  close  of 
Onnond's  military  career ;  he  never  after  made  head  against  ths 
Parliamentary  forces  in  open  field.  The  Catholic  cities  of  Lime- 
rick and  Galway  refused  to  admit  his  garrisons  ;  a  synod  of  the 
Bishops,  assemb'ed  at  Jamestown  (in  Roscommon),  strongly  re- 
commended his  withdrawal  from  the  kingdom ;  and  Cromwell 
lad  arrived,  resolved  to  finish  the  war  in  a  single  campaign. 
Ormond  sailed  again  for  France,  before  the  end  of  1649,  to  return 
no  more  until  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  on  the  death  of 
the  great  Protector. 


POPtJLAtt    EUSI'Jrtf    OS-    lii-iLjwNTi.  638 


CHAPTER  X. 
CEOMWELL'S  CAMPAIGN — 1649-1650. 

An  aotor  was  now  to  descend  upon  the  scene,  whose  character 
has  excited  more  controversy  than  that  of  any  other  personage 
of  those  times.  Honored  as  a  saint,  or  reprobated  as  a  hypocrite, 
worshiped  for  his  extraordinary  successes,  or  anathematized  for 
the  unworthy  artifices  by  which  he  rose — who  shall  deal  out,  with 
equal  hand,  praise  and  blame  to  Oliver  Cromwell  ?  Not  for  the 
popular  writer  of  Irish  history,  is  that  difficult  judicial  task.  Not 
for  us  to  reecho  cries  of  hatred  which  convince  not  the  indiffer- 
ent, nor  correct  the  errors  of  the  educated  or  cultivated:  the 
simple,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  the  uuimpassioned  narrative  of 
facts,  will  constitute  the  whole  of  our  duty  towards  the  Protector's 
campaign  in  Ireland. 

Cromwell  left  London  in  great  state,  early  in  July,  "  in  a  coach 
drawn  by  six  gallant  Flanders  mares,"  and  made  a  sort  of  royal 
procession  across  the  country  to  Bristol.  From  that  famous  port, 
where  Strongbow  confederated  with  Dermid  McMurrogh,  and 
from  which  Dublin  drew  its  first  Anglo-Norman  colony,  he  went 
on  to  Milford  Haven,  at  which  he  embarked,  arriving  in  Dublin, 
on  the  15th  of  August.  He  entered  the  city  hi  procession,  and 
addressed  the  townsfolk  from  "  a  convenient  place."  He  had  with 
him  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  moiiey,  eight  regiments  of 
foot,  six  of  horse,  and  some  troops  of  dragoons ;  besides  the  divi- 
sions of  Jones  and  Monck,  already  in  the  country,  and  subject  to 
his  command.  Among  the  officers  were  names  of  memorable 
interest — Henry  Cromwell,  second  son  of  the  Protector,  and  future 
Lord  Deputy ;  Monck,  Blake,  Jones,  Ireton,  Ludlow,  Hardresi 
Waller,  Sankey,  and  others  equally  prominent  in  accomplishing 
the  King's  death,  or  in  raising  up  the  English  commonwealth. 

Cromwell's  command  in  Ireland  extends  from  the  middle  of 
August,  1649,  to  the  end  of  May,  1650,  about  nine  months  in  all, 
and  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of  sieges  of  walled  town* 


640  POPULAR    fllSTORY    Of   IRELAND. 

crowded  into  thai  brief  period.  There  was,  during  the  whok 
time,  no  great  action  in  the  field,  like  Marston  Moor,  or  Benburb 
or  Dunbar;  it  was  a  campaign  of  seventeenth  century  canno» 
against  mediaeval  masonry  ;  what  else  was  done,  was  the  supple 
mental  work  of  mutual  bravery  on  both  sides.  Drogheda,  Dun- 
dalk,  Newry,  and  Carlingford,  fell  in  September;  Arklow, 
Enniscorthy,  and  Wexford  in  October;  Ross,  one  of  the  first 
seaports  in  point  of  commerce,  surrendered  the  same  month; 
Waterford,  was  attempted  and  abandoned  in  November ;  Dun 
garvan,  Kinsale,  Bandon,  and  Cork,  were  won  over  by  Lord 
Broghill  in  December ;  Fethard,  Callan,  and  Cashel  in  January 
and  February ;  Carrick  and  Kilkenny  in  March ;  and  Clonmel, 
early  in  May.  Immediately  after  this  last  capitulation,  Cromwell 
was  recalled  to  lead  the  armies  of  the  Parliament  into  Scotland : 
during  the  nine  months  he  had  commanded  in  Ireland,  he  had 
captured  five  or  six  county  capitals,  and  a  great  number  of  less 
considerable  places.  The  terror  of  his  siege-trains  and  Ironsides, 
was  spread  over  the  greater  part  of  three  Provinces,  and  his  well- 
reported  successes  had  proved  so  many  steps  to  the  assumption 
of  that  rovereign  power  at  which  he  already  aimed. 

Of  the  spirit  in  which  these  several  sieges  were  conducted,  it  u 
impossible  to  speak  without  a  shudder.  It  was,  in  truth,  a  spirit 
of  hatred  and  fanaticism,  altogether  beyond  the  control  of  the 
revolutionary  leader.  At  Drogheda,  the  work  of  slaughter  occu- 
pied five  entire  days.  Of  the  brave  garrison  of  3,000  men,  not 
thirty  were  spared,  and  these  "  were  in  hands  for  the  Barbadoes;" 
old  men,  women,  children,  and  priests,  were  unsparingly  put  to 
the  sword.  Wexford  was  basely  betrayed  by  Captain  James 
Stafford,  commander  of  the  castle,  whose  midnight  interview 
with  Cromwell,  at  a  oetty  rivulet  without  the  walls,  tradition 
iti'.l  recounts  with  horror  and  detestation.  This  port  was  par- 
ticularly obnoxious  to  the  Parliament,  as  from  its  advantageoni 
position  on  the  Bristol  channel  its  emitters  greatly  annoyed  ana 
embarrassed  their  commerce.  "  There  are,"  Cromwell  writes  to 
Speaker  Lenthall,  "  great  quantities  of  iron,  hides,  tallow,  salt, 
pipe  and  barrel  staves,  which  are  under  commissioners'  hands  to 
be  secured.  We  believe  there  are  near  a  hundred  cannon  in  the 
fort  and  elsewhere  in  and  about  the  town.  Here  is  likewiN 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAHD.  541 

•ome  very  good  shipping ;  here  are  three  vessels,  one  of  them  of 
thirty-four  guns,  -which  a  week's  time  would  fit  for  sea ;  there  ii 
another  of  about  twenty  guns,  very  nearly  ready  likewise."  H« 
also  reports  two  other  frigates,  one  on  the  stocks,  which  ''  for 
her  handsomeness'  sake "  he  intended  to  have  finished  for  the 
Parliament,  and  another  "most  excellent  vessel  for  sailing," 
taken  within  the  fort,  at  the  harbor's  mouth.  By  the  treachery 
of  Captain  Stafford,  this  strong  and  wealthy  town  was  at  th« 
mercy  of  those  "  soldiers  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon,"  who  had 
followed  Oliver  to  his  Irish  wars.  The  consequences  were  the 
same  as  at  Drogheda — merciless  execution  on  the  garrison  and 
the  inhabitants. 

In  the  third  month  of  Cromwell's  campaign,  the  report  of 
Owen  O'Neill's  death  went  abroad,  palsying  the  Catholic  arms. 
By  common  consent  of  friend  and  foe,  he  was  considered  the 
ablest  civil  and  military  leader  that  had  appeared  in  Ireland 
during  the  reigns  of  the  Stuart  kings.  Whether  in  native  ability 
he  was  capable  of  coping  with  Cromwell,  was  for  a  long  time  a 
subject  of  discussion ;  but  the  consciousness  of  irreparable  national 
loss,  perhaps,  never  struck  deeper  than  amid  the  crash  of  that 
irresistible  cannonade  of  the  walled  towns  and  cities  of  Leinster 
and  Munster.  O'Neill  had  lately,  despairing  of  binding  the  Scots 
or  the  English,  distrustful  alike  of  Coote  and  of  Monck,  been 
reconciled  to  Ormond,  and  was  marching  southward  to  his  aid  at 
the  head  of  6,000  chosen  men.  Lord  Chancellor  Clarendon 
assures  us  that  Ormond  had  the  highest  hopes  from  this  junction, 
and  the  utmost  confidence  in  O'Neill's  abilities.  But  at  a  ball  at 
Derry,  towards  the  end  of  August,  he  received  his  death,  it  ia 
eaid,  in  a  pair  of  poisoned  russet  leather  slippers  presented  to 
him  by  one  Plunkett ;  marching  southward,  borne,  in  a  litter,  h* 
expired  at  Clough  Oughter  Castle,  near  his  old  Belturbet  camp, 
on  the  6th  of  November,  1649.  His  last  act  was  to  order  one  of 
his  nephews — Hugh  O'Neill — to  form  a  junction  with  Ormond  in 
Munster  without  delay.  In  the  chancel  of  the  Franciscan  Abbey 
of  Cavan,  now  grass-grown  and  trodden  by  the  hoofs  of  cattle, 
his  body  was  interred ;  his  nephew  and  successor  did  honor  to 
his  memory  at  Clonmel  and  Limeriok.  It  was  now  remembered 
«T«n  by  his  enemies,  with  astonishment  and  admiration,  how  for 


642  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IBBLASD. 

eeven  long  years  he  bad  subsisted  and  kept  together  an  army, 
the  creature  of  his  genius;  without  a  government  at  bis  back, 
•without  regular  supplies,  enforcing  obedience,  establishing  dia- 
cipline,  winning  great  victories,  maintaining,  even  at  the  worst, 
a  native  power  in  the  heart  of  the  kingdom.  When  the  archive* 
of  those  years  are  recovered  (if  they  ever  are),  no  name  more 
illustrious  for  the  combination  of  great  qualities  will  be  found 
preserved  there  than  the  name  of  this  last  national  leader  of  th« 
illustrious  lineage  of  O'Neill 

The  unexpected  death  of  the  Ulster  general  favored  still  farther 
Cromwell's  southern  movements.  The  gallant,  but  impetuous 
Bishop  of  Clogher,  Heber  McMahon,  was  the  only  northern  leader 
who  could  command  confidence  enough  to  keep  O'Neill's  force 
together,  and  on  him,  therefore,  the  command  devolved.  OTer- 
r;tll,  one  of  Owen's  favorite  officers,  was  despatched  to  Waterford, 
and  mainly  contributed  to  Cromwell's  repulse  before  that  city ; 
Hugh  O'Neill  covered  himself  with  glory  at  Clonmel  and  Limerick ; 
Daniel  O'Neill,  another  nephew  ofx  Owen,  remained  attached  to 
Ormond,  and  accompanied  him  to  France ;  but  within  six  months 
from  the  loss  of  their  Fabian  chief,  who  knew  as  well  when  to 
strike  as  to  delay,  the  brave  Bishop  of  Clogher  sacrificed  the  rem- 
nant of  "  the  Catholic  Army  "  at  the  pass  of  Scariff  hollis,  in  Done- 
gal, and,  two  days  after,  his  own  life  by  a  martyr's  death,  at 
Omagh.  At  the  date  of  Cromwell's  departure — when  Ireton  took 
command  of  the  southern  army — there  remained  to  the  Confed- 
erates, only  some  remote  glens  and  highlands  of  the  North  and 
West,  the  cities  of  Limerick  and  Galway,  with  the  county  of 
Clare,  and  some  detached  districts  of  the  province  of  Con- 
naught, 

The  last  act  of  Cromwell's  proper  campaign  was  the  siege  of 
Clonmel,  where  he  met  the  stoutest  resistance  he  had  any  when 
encountered.  The  Puritans,  after  effecting  a  breach,  made  an  at- 
tempt to  enter,  chanting  one  of  their  scriptural  battle-songs.  They 
were,  by  their  own  account,  "  obliged  to  give  back  a  while,"  and 
finally  night  settled  down  upon  the  scene.  The  following  day, 
finding  the  place  no  longer  tenaole,  the  garrison  silently  with- 
drew to  Waterford,  and  subsequently  to  Limerick.  The  inhabi- 
tants demanded  a  parley,  which  was  granted  ;  and  Cromwell  taljM 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  548 

mdit,  and  deserves  it,  when  we  consider  the  men  he  had  to 
humor,  for  having  kept  conditions  with  them. 

From  before  Clonmel  he  returned  at  once  to  England,  where  he 
was  received  with  royal  honors.  All  London  turned  out  to  meet 
the  Conqueror  who  had  wiped  out  the  humiliation  of  Benburb, 
and  humbled  the  pride  of  the  detested  Papists.  He  was  lodged 
in  the  palace  of  the  king,  and  chosen  "  Captain-general  of  all  the 
forces  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  by  the  authority  of  the  Parliament 
of  England." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CLOSE    OF    THE  CONFEDERATE  WAB. 

THE  tenth  year  of  the  contest  of  which  we  have  endeavored  to 
follow  the  most  important  events,  opened  upon  the  remaining 
Catholic  leaders,  greatly  reduced  in  numbers  and  resources,  but 
firm  and  undismayed.  Two  chief  seaports,  and  some  of  the  western 
counties  still  remained  to  them ;  and  accordingly  we  find  meet- 
ings of  the  Bishops  and  other  notables  during  this  year  (1650), 
at  Limerick,  at  Loughrea,  and  finally  at  Jamestown,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Owen  O'Neill's  nursery  of  the  first  "  Catholic  Army." 

The  Puritan  commander  was  now  Henry  Ireton,  son-in  law  of 
Cromwell,  by  a  marriage  contracted  about  two  years  before.  The 
completion  of  the  Protector's  policy  could  have  devolved  upon 
f«w  persons  more  capable  of  understanding,  or  more  fearless  in  ex- 
ecuting it ;  and  in  two  eventful  campaigns  he  proved  himself  the 
able  successor  of  the  Protector.  In  August  following  Cromwell's 
depai  ture,  Waterford  and  Duncannon  were  taken  by  Ireton ;  and 
there  only  remained  to  the  Confederates  the  fortresses  of  Sligof 
Athloue,  Limerick,  and  Galway,  with  the  country  included  withit 
the  irregular  quadrangle  they  describe.  The  younger  Coot* 
making  a  feint  against  Sligo,  which  Clanrickarde  hastened  to  de- 
1»nd,  turned  suddenly  on  his  steps,  and  surprised  Athlone.  Sligo, 
naturally  a  place  of  no  great  strength  after  the  invention  of  artil- 
lery, soon  after  fell,  so  that  Galway  and  Limerick  alone  were  left,  at 
the  beginning  of  1651,  to  bear  all  the  brunt  of  Puritan  hostility. 

Pol/tical  events  of  great  interest  ^aappenrd  during  the  two 


644  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

short  years  of  Ireton's  command.  The  Assembly,  which  me;  At 
Jamestown  in  August,  and  again  at  Loughrea  in  November,  1680, 
made  the  retirement  of  Ormond  from  the  Government  a  condi- 
tion of  all  future  efforts  in  the  royal  cause,  and  that  nobleman, 
deeply  wounded  by  this  condition,  had  finally  sailed  from  Galway, 
in  December,  leaving  to  Clanrickarde  the  title  of  Lord  Deputy, 
and  to  Castlehaven  the  command  of  the  forces  which  still  kept  the 
field.  The  news  from  Scotland  of  the  young  king's  subscription 
to  the  covenant,  and  denunciation  of  all  terms  with  Irish  Papists, 
came  to  aid  the  councils  of  those,  who,  like  the  eloquent  French, 
Bishop  of  Ferns,  demanded  a  national  policy,  irrespective  of  the 
exigencies  of  the  Stuart  family.  An  embassy  was  accordingly 
despatched  to  Brussels,  to  offer  the  title  of  King-Protector  to  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  or  failing  with  him,  to  treat  with  any  "  other 
Catholic  prince,  state,  republic,  or  person,  as  they  might  deem 
expedient  for  the  preservation  of  the  Catholic  religion  and  nation ;" 
A  wide  latitude,  dictated  by  desperate  circumstances.  The  am- 
bassadors were  Bishop  French  and  Hugh  Rochfort ;  the  embassy 
one  of  the  most  curious  and  instructive  in  our  annals. 

The  Duke  expressed  himself  willing  to  undertake  an  expedition 
to  Ireland — to  supply  arms  and  money  to  the  Confederates — on 
the  condition  of  receiving  Athlone,  Limerick,  Athenry  and  Gal- 
way  into  his  custody,  with  the  title  of  Protector.  A  considerable 
sum  of  money  (£20,000)  was  forwarded  at  once ;  four  Belgian 
frigates  laden  with  stores  were  made  ready  for  sea ;  the  Canon  De 
Ilenin  was  sent  as  envoy  to  the  Confederates,  and  this  last  ven- 
ture looked  most  promising  of  success,  had  not  Clanrickarde  in 
Galway,  and  Charles  and  Ormond  in  Paris,  taking  alarm  at  the 
new  dignity  conferred  upon  the  Duke,  countermined  the  Bishop 
of  Ferns  and  Mr.  Rochfort,  and  defeated  by  intrigue  and  corre- 
apondence  their  hopeful  enterprise. 

The  decisive  battle  of  Worcester,  fought  on  the  8d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1651,  drove  Charles  II.  into  that  nine  years'  exile,  from 
which  he  only  returned  on  the  death  of  Cromwell.  It  may  be 
tonaidered  the  last  military  event  of  importance  in  the  English 
eivil  war.  In  Ireland  the  contest  was  destined  to  drag  out 
another  campaign,  before  the  walls  of  the  two  gfllant  citie«, 
Galway  and  Limerick. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  545 

Limerick  was  the  first  object  of  attack.  Ireton,  leaving  Sankey 
to  administer  martial  law  in  Tipperary,  struck  th.e  Shannon  oppo- 
site Killaloe,  driving  Castlehaven  before  him.  Joined  by  Coote 
and  Reynolds,  fresh  from  the  sieges  of  Athenry  and  Athlone,  he 
moved  upon  Limerick  by  the  Connaught  bank  of  the  river,  while 
Castlehaven  fled  to  Clanricarde  in  G  alway,  with  a  guard  of  forty 
horse,  all  that  remained  intact  of  the  4,000  men  bequeathed  him 
by  Ormond.  From  the  side  of  Minister,  Lord  Muskerry  attempted 
a  diversion  in  favor  of  Limerick,  but  was  repulsed  at  Castleishen, 
by  "  the  flyirg  camp "  of  Lord  Broghill.  The  besiegers  were 
thus  not  only  delivered  of  a  danger,  but  reinforced  by  native 
troops — if  the  "  Undertakers "  could  be  properly  called  so— 
which  made  them  the  most  formidable  army  that  had  ever  sur- 
rounded an  Irish  city.  From  early  summer  till  the  last  week  of 
October,  the  main  force  of  the  English  and  Anglo-Irish,  supplied 
with  every  species  of  arm  then  invented,  assailed  the  walls  of 
Limerick.  The  plague,  which  during  these  months  swept  with 
such  fearful  mortality  over  the  whole  kingdom,  struck  down  its 
defenders  and  filled  all  its  streets  with  desolation  and  grief.  The 
heroic  bishops,  O'Brien  of  Emly,  and  O'Dwyer  of  Limerick, 
exerted  themselves  to  uphold,  by  religious  exhortations,  the  con- 
fidence of  the  besieged ;  while  Hugh  O'Neill  and  General  Purcell 
maintained  the  courage  of  their  men.  Clanrickarde  had  offered 
to  charge  himself  with  the  command,  but  the  citizens  preferred 
to  trust  in  the  skill  and  determination  of  the  defender  of  Clonmel, 
whose  very  name  was  a  talisman  among  them.  The  municipal 
government,  however,  composed  of  the  men  of  property  in  the 
city,  men  w^aose  trade  was  not  war,  whose  religion  was  not 
enthusiastic,  formed  a  third  party, — a  party  in  favor  of  peace  at 
any  price.  With  the  mayor  at  their  head,  they  openly  encouraged 
the  surrender  of  one  of  the  outworks  to  the  besiegers,  and  this 
betrayal,  on  the  27th  of  October,  compelled  the  surrender  of  tha 
entire  works.  Thus  Limerick  fell,  divided  within  itself  by  mili- 
tary, clerical  and  municipal  factions ;  thus  glory  an  d  misfortune 
combined  to  consecrate  its  name  in  the  national  veneration,  and 
the  general  memory  of  mankind.  The  Bishop  of  Emly  and  Gen- 
eral Purcell  wore  executed  as  traitors ;  the  Bishop  of  Limerick 
escaped  in  the  disguise  of  a  common  soldier,  an  1  died  at  Brussels ; 
46* 


£46  POPULAR    BISTORT    Off   1KJELAHD. 

O'NeilFs  life  was  saved  by  a  single  vote ;  Sir  Geoffrey  Galwey 
Aldermen  Stritch  and  Fanning  and  other  leading  Confederate! 
expiated  their  devotion  upon  the  scaffold. 

On  the  12th  of  May  following — seven  months  after  the  captui« 
of  Liuierick,  Galw  ay  fell.  Ireton,  who  survived  the  former  siegu 
but  a  few  days,  was  succeeded  by  Ludlow,  a  sincere  republican 
of  the  school  of  Pym  and  Hanipden — if  that  school  can  be  called, 
ir  our  modern  sense,  republican.  It  was  the  sad  privilege  of 
General  Preston,  whose  name  is  associated  with  so  many  of  the 
darkest,  arid  with  some  of  the  brightest  incidents  of  this  war,  to 
order  the  surrender  of  Galway,  as  he  had  two  years  previously 
given  upWaterford.  Thus  the  last  open  port,  the  last  considerable 
town  held  by  the  Confederates  yielded  to  the  overwhelming  power 
of  numbers  and  munitions,  hi  the  twelfth  year  of  that  illustrious 
war  which  Ireland  waged  for  her  religious  and  civil  liberties, 
against  the  forces  of  the  two  adjoining  kingdoms,  sometimes 
estranged  from  one  another,  but  always  hostile  alike  to  the  reli- 
gious belief  and  the  political  independence  of  the  Irish  people. 

With  the  fall  of  Galway,  the  Confederate  war  drew  rapidly  to 
a  close.  Colonels  Fitzpatrick,  OVDwyer,  Grace,  and  Thorlogh 
O'Neill,  surrendered  their  posts ;  Lords  Enniskillen  and  Westmeath 
followed  their  example ;  Lord  Muskerry  yielded  Ross  Castle,  on 
Killarney,  in  June ;  Clanrickarde  laid  down  his  arms  at  Carrick, 
in  October.  The  usual  terms  granted  were  liberty  to  transport 
themselves  and  followers  to  the  service  of  any  foreign  state  or 
prince  at  peace  with  the  commonwealth;  a  favored  few  were  per- 
mitted to  live  and  die  in  peace  on  their  own  estates,  under  tin, 
watchful  eye  of  some  neighboring  garrison. 

The  chief  actors  in  the  Confederate  war  not  already  accounted 
for,  terminated  their  days  under  many  different  circumstances. 
Mountgarrett  and  Bishop  Rothe  died  before  Galway  fell,  and  were 
buried  in  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy ;  Bishop  McMahon,  oi 
Cl  gher,  surrendered  to  Sir  Charles  Coote,  and  was  executed  like 
a  .'d(, n  by  one  he  had  saved  from  destruction  a  year  before  at 
Derry ;  Coote,  after  the  Restoration,  became  Earl  of  Mountrath, 
and  Broghill,  Earl  of  Orrery;  Clanrickarde  died  unnoticed  on 
Lia  English  estate,  under  the  Protectorate;  Inchiquin,  after  many 
adventures  in  foreign  lands,  turned  Catholic  in  his  old  age,  und 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  547 

this  burner  of  churches  bequeathed  au  annual  alms  for  masses  fo* 
his  soul;  /ones,  Corbet,  Cook,  and  the  fanatical  preacher,  Hugh 
Petere,  peri  -bed  on  the  scaffold  with  the  other  regicides  executed 
by  order  of  the  English  Parliament ;  Ormond  having  shared  the 
evils  of  exile  with  the  King,  shared  also  the  splendor  of  bis  res- 
toration, became  a  Duke,  and  took  his  place,  aa  if  by  common 
consent,  at  the  head  of  the  peerage  of  the  empire ;  his  Irish 
rental,  which  before  the  war  was  but  £7,000  a  year,  swelled 
suddenly  on  tho  Restoration  to  £80,000 ;  Nicholas  French,  after 
some  sojourn  in  Spain,  where  he  was  coadjutor  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Saint  James,  returned  to  Louvain,  where  he  made  his  first 
studies,  and  there  spent  the  evening  of  his  days  in  the  composition 
of  those  powerful  pamphlets  which  kept  alive  the  Irish  cause  at 
home  and  on  the  continent ;  a  Roman  patrician  did  the  honors  of 
sepulture  to  Luke  "Wadding,  and  Cromwell  interred  James  Usher 
in  Westminster  Abbey ;  the  heroic  defender  of  Clonmel  and 
Limerick,  and  the  gallant,  though  vacillating  Preston,  were  cor- 
dially received  in  France ;  while  the  consistent  republican  Lud- 
low  took  refuge  as  a  fugitive  in  Switzerland. 

Sir  Phelim  O'Neill,  the  first  author  of  the  war,  waa  among  the 
last  to  suffer  the  penalties  of  defeat.  For  a  moment,  towards  the 
end,  he  renewed  his  sway  over  the  remnant  of  Owen's  soldiers, 
took  Ballyshannon  and  two  or  three  other  places.  Compelled  at 
last  to  surrender,  he  was  carried  to  Dublin,  and  tried  on  a  charge 
of  treason,  a  committee  closeted  behind  the  bench  dictating  the 
interrogatories  to  his  judges,  and  receiving  his  answers  in  reply. 
Condemned  to  death,  as  was  expected,  he  was  offered  his  life  by 
the  Puritan  colonel,  Hewson,  on  the  very  steps  of  the  scaffold,  if 
he  would  inculpate  the  late  King  Charles  in  the  rising  of  1641. 
This  he  "  stoutly  refused  to  do,"  and  the  execution  proceeded 
with  all  its  atrocious  details.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
excesses  committed  under  his  command  by  a  plundered  people, 
at  their  first  insurrection — and  we  know  that  they  have  been 
exaggerated  beyond  all  bounds — it  must  be  admitted  he  died  th* 
death  of  a  Christian,  a  soliier,  and  a  gentleman. 


648  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRKLAHD. 


CHAPTER  XEI. 

tRKLAUD   CHDKK   THK  PROTECTORATE. — ADMINISTRATION   Or   HENRY 
CROMWELL. DEATH   OF  OLIVER. 

THE  English  republic  rose  from  the  scaffold  of  the  King,  in 
1649 ;  its  first  goyernment  was  a  " Council  of  State"  of  forty-one 
members ;  under  this  council,  Cromwell  held  at  first  the  title  of 
Lord  General ;  but,  on  the  16th  December,  1653,  he  was  solemnly 
installed,  in  Westminster  Hall,  as  "  Lord  Protector  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland."  He  was  then  in 
his  fifty-fourth  year ;  his  reign — if  such  it  may  be  called — lasted 
less  than  fire  years. 

The  policy  of  the  Protector  towards  Ireland  is  even  less  defen- 
sible than  his  military  severities.  For  the  barbarities  of  war 
there  may  be  some  apology,  the  poor  one  at  least  that  such 
outrages  are  inseparable  from  war  itself;  but  for  the  cold-blooded, 
deliberate  atrocities  of  peace,  no  such  defense  can  be  permitted 
before  the  tribunal  of  a  free  posterity. 

The  Long  Parliament,  still  dragging  out  its  date,  under  the 
shadow  of  Cromwell's  great  name,  declared  in  its  session  of  1652, 
the  rebellion  in  Ireland  "  subdued  and  ended,"  and  proceeded  to 
legislate  for  that  kingdom  as  a  conquered  country.  On  the  12th 
of  August,  they  passed  their  Act  of  Settlement,  the  authorship 
of  which  was  attributed  to  Lord  Orrery,  in  this  respect  the 
•worthy  son  of  the  first  Earl  of  Cork.  Under  this  Act,  there  were 
four  chief  descriptions  of  persons  whose  status  was  thus  settled : 
1st.  All  ecclesiastics  and  royalist  proprietors  were  exempted  from 
pardon  of  life  or  estate.  2d.  All  royalist  commissioned  officers 
were  condemned  to  banishment,  and  the  forfeit  of  two-thirds  of 
their  property,  one  third  being  retained  for  the  support  of  their 
wives  and  children.  3d.  Those  who  had  not  been  in  arms,  but 
who  could  be  shown,  by  a  Parliamentary  commission,  to  have 
manifested  "  a  constant,  good  affection,"  to  the  war,  were  to  for- 
feit  one  third  of  their  estates,  and  receive  "  an  equivalent "  for  thu 
remaining  two-thirds  west  of  the  Shannon.  4th.  All  hiibimii'l 
men  and  others  of  fie  inferior  sort,  "  not  possessed  of  lands  01 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  540 

goode  exceeding  the  value  of  £10,'  were  to  have  a  free  pardon, 
on  condition  also  of  transporting  themselves  across  the  Shannon. 

This  last  condition  of  the  Cromwellian  settlement  distinguished 
it,  in  our  annals,  from  every  other  proscription  of  the  native  popu- 
lation formerly  attempted.  The  great  river  of  Ireland,  rising  in 
the  mountains  of  Leitrim,  nearly  severs  the  five  western  counties 
from  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.  The  province  thus  set  apart,  though 
one  of  the  largest  in  superficial  extent,  had  also  the  largest  pro- 
portion  of  waste  and  water,  mountain  and  moorland.  The  new 
inhabitants  were  there  to  congregate  from  all  the  other  provinces 
before  the  1st  day  of  May,  1654,  under  penalty  of  outlawry  and 
all  its  consequences ;  and  when  there,  they  were  not  to  appear 
within  two  miles  of  the  Shannon  or  four  miles  of  the  sea.  A 
rigorous  passport  system,  to  evade  which  was  death  without 
form  of  trial,  completed  this  settlement,  the  design  of  which  was 
to  shut  up  the  remaining  Catholic  inhabitants  from  all  intercourse 
with  mankind,  and  all  communion  with  the  other  inhabitants  of 
their  own  country. 

A  new  survey  of  the  whole  kingdom  was  also  ordered,  undel 
the  direction  of  Dr.  William  Petty,  the  fortunate  economist,  who 
founded  the  house  of  Lansdowne.  By  him  the  surface  of  the 
kingdom  was  estimated  at  ten  millions  and  a  half  plantation 
acres,  three  of  which  were  deducted  for  waste  and  water.  Of 
the  remainder,  above  5,000,000  were  in  Catholic  hands  in  1641 ; 
800,000  were  church  and  college  lands;  and  2,000,000  were  in 
possession  of  the  Protestant  settlers  of  the  reigns  of  James  and 
Elizabeth.  Under  the  Protectorate,  5,000,000  acres  were  confis- 
cated ;  this  enormous  spoil,  two-thirds  of  the  whole  island,  went 
to  the  soldiers  and  adventurers  who  had  served  against  the  Irish, 
or  had  contributed  to  the  military  chest,  since  1641 — except 
700,000  acres  given  in  "  exchange"  to  the  banished  in  Clare  and 
Connaught ;  and  1,200,000  confirmed  to  "  innocent  Papists." 
Such  was  the  complete  uprooting  of  the  ancient  tenantry  or 
clansmen,  from  their  original  holdings,  that  during  the  survey, 
orders  of  Parliament  were  issued,  to  bring  back  individuals  from 
C<  nnaught  to  point  out  the  boundaries  of  parrishes  in  Munster.  It 
cannot  be  imputed  among  the  sins  so  freely  laid  to  the  historical 
account  of  the  native  legislature,  that  an  Irish  parliament  had 


550  POPULAR  BISTORT  OF  IBKLAHD. 

any  share  in  sanctioning  this  universal  spoliation.  Cron.well  an 
ticipated  the  union  of  the  kingdoms  by  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
when  he  summoned,  in  1653,  that  assembly  over  which  "Praise 
God  Barcbones  "  presided;  members  for  Ireland  and  Scotland  sat 
on  the  same  benches  with  the  commons  of  England.  Oliver7! 
first  deputy  in  the  government  of  Ireland  was  hia  son-in-law, 
Fleetwood,  who  had  married  the  widow  of  Ireton ;  but  his  real 
representative  was  his  fourth  son,  Henry  Cromwell,  commander- 
iu-chief  of  the  army.  In  1657,  the  title  of  Lord  Deputy  was 
transferred  from  Fleetwood  to  Henry,  who  united  the  supreme 
civil  and  military  authority  in  his  own  person,  until  the  eve  of 
the  restoration,  of  which  he  became  an  active  partisan.  We  may 
thus  properly  embrace  the  five  years  of  the  Protectorate  as  the 
period  of  Henry  Cromwell's  administration. 

In  the  absence  of  a  parliament,  the  government  of  Ireland  waa 
vested  iu  the  deputy,  the  commander-in-chief,  and  four  commis- 
sioners, Ludlow,  Corbett,  Jones,  and  Weaver.  There  was,  more- 
over, a  High  Court  of  Justice,  which  perambulated  the  kingdom, 
and  exercised  an  absolute  authority  over  life  and  property,  greater 
than  even  Strafford's  Court  of  Castle  Chamber  had  pretended  to. 
Over  this  court  presided  Lord  Lowther,  assisted  by  Mr.  Justice 
Donnellan,  by  Cooke,  solicitor  to  the  Parliament  on  the  trial  of 
King  Charles,  and  the  regicide,  Reynolds.  By  this  court,  Sir 
Phclim  0'.Neill,  Viscount  Mayo,  and  Colonels  O'Toole  and  Bagnal], 
were  condemned  and  executed ;  by  them  the  mother  of  Colonel 
Fitzpatrick  was  burnt  at  the  stake ;  and  Lords  Muskerry  and 
Clanmaliere  set  at  liberty,  through  some  secret  influence.  The 
commissioners  were  not  behind  the  High  Court  of  Justice  in  execu- 
tive offices  of  severity.  Children  under  age,  of  both  sexes,  were 
captured  by  thousands,  and  sold  as  slaves  to  the  tobacco  planter! 
of  Virginia  and  the  West  Indies.  Secretary  Thurloe  informs  Henrj 
Cromwell  that  "the  Committee  o*  the  Council  have  authorized 
1  000  girls  and  as  many  youths,  to  be  taken  up  for  that  purpose.'1 
Sir  William  Petty  mentions  6,000  Irish  boys  and  girls  shipped  to 
ihe  West  Indies.  Some  cotemporary  accounts  make  the  total 
number  of  children  and  adults  PO  transported  100,000  soula.  To 
this  decimation,  we  may  add  84,000  men  of  fighting  age,  who  had 
permission  to  enter  the  armies  of  foreign  powers,  at  peace  with 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  661 

the  commonwealth.  The  chief  commissioners,  sitting  at  Dublin, 
had  their  deputies  in  a  commission  of  delinquencies,  sitting  at 
Athlone,  and  another  of  transportation,  sitting  at  Loughre*. 
Under  their  superintendence,  the  distribution  made  of  the  soil 
among  the  Puritans  "  was  nearly  as  complete  as  that  of  Canada 
by  the  Israelites."  Whenever  native  laborers  were  found  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  cultivation  of  the  estates  of  their  new 
masters,  they  were  barely  tolerated  "as  the  Gibeonites  had  been 
by  Joshua."  Such  Irish  gentlemen  as  had  obtained  pardona, 
were  obliged  to  wear  a  distinctive  mark  on  their  dress  under 
pain  of  death ;  those  of  inferior  rank  were  obliged  to  wear  a 
round  black  spot  on  the  right  cheek  under  pain  of  the  branding 
iron  and  the  gallows ;  if  a  Puritan  lost  his  life  in  iny  district  in- 
habited by  Catholics,  the  whole  population  were  held  subject  to 
military  execution.  For  the  rest,  whenever  "  Tory"  or  recusant  fell 
into  the  hands  of  these  military  colonists,  or  the  garrisons  which 
knitted  them  together,  they  were  assailed  with  the  war  cry  of  the 
Jews — "  That  thy  feet  may  be  dipped  in  the  blood  of  thine  ene- 
mies, and  that  the  tongues  of  thy  dogs  may  be  red  with  the 
same."  Thus  penned  in  between  "  the  mile  line  "  of  the  Shannon( 
and  "  the  four-mile  line "  of  the  sea,  the  remnant  of  the  Irish 
nation  passed  seven  years  of  a  bondage  unequaled  in  severity  by 
any  thing  which  can  be  found  in  the  annals  of  Christendom. 

The  conquest  was  not  only  a  military  but  a  religious  subjuga- 
tion. The  27th  of  Elizabeth — the  old  act  of  uniformity — waa 
rigorously  enforced.  The  Catholic  lawyers  were  disbarred  and 
silenced ;  the  Catholic  schoolmasters  were  forbidden  to  teach,  un- 
der pain  of  felony.  Recusants,  surrounded  in  glens  and  caves, 
offering  up  the  holy  sacrifice  through  the  ministry  of  some  daring 
priest,  were  shot  down  or  smoked  out  like  vermin.  The  ecclesi- 
astics never,  in  any  instance,  were  allowed  to  escape.  Among 
those  who  suffered  death  during  the  short  space  of  the  Protecto- 
rate, are  counted  "  three  bishops  and  three  hundred  ecclesiastics." 
The  surviving  prelates  were  in  exile,  except  the  bedridden  Bishop 
of  Kilmore,  who  for  years  had  been  unable  to  officiate.  So  that, 
now,  that  ancient  hierarchy  which  in  the  worst  Danish  wars  had 
still  recruited  its  ranks  as  fast  as  they  were  broken,  seemed  on 
the  very  eve  of  extinction.  Throughout  all  the  island  no  epi» 


552  POPULAR   HISTORY    01*   IRELAJTD. 

copal  hand  remained  to  bless  altars,  to  ordain  priests,  or  to  eon 
firm  the  faithful  The  Irish  church  as  well  as  the  Irish  state, 
touched  its  lowest  point  of  suffering  and  endurance  in  the  decade 
•which  intervened  between  the  death  of  Charles  L  and  the  death 
of  Cromwell. 

The  new  population  imposed  upon  the  kingdom,  soon  split  up 
into  a  multitude  of  sects.  Some  of  them  became  Quakers ;  many 
adhered  to  the  Anabaptists ;  others,  after  the  Restoration,  con- 
formed to  the  established  church.  That  deeper  tincture  of 
Puritanism  which'  may  be  traced  in  the  Irish,  as  compared  with 
the  English  establishment,  took  it«  origin  even  more  from  tbe 
Cromwellian  settlement  than  from  the  Calvinistic  teachings  of 
Archbishop  Usher. 

Oliver  died  in  1658,  on  his  "  fortunate  day,"  the  3d  of  Sep- 
tember, leaving  England  to  experience  twenty  months  of  repub- 
lican intrigue  and  anarchy.  Eichard  Cromwell — Lambert — Lud  • 
low — Monk— each  played  his  part  in  th :t  stormy  interval,  till,  the 
time  being  ripe  for  a  restoration,  Charles  II.  landed  at  Dover  on 
the  23d  of  May,  1660,  and  WAS  carried  in  triumph  to  London, 


POPULAR    UISXOKY    OS    IRELAND  £53 


BOOK  X. 

FROM   THE   RESTORATION  OF  CHARLES  II 
TO   THE   ACCESSION   OF  GEORGE  L 


CHAPTER  I. 

REIGN     OF     CHARLES    II. 

HOPE  is  dear  to  the  heart  of  man,  and  of  all  her  votaries  none 
have  been  more  constant  than  the  Irish.  Half  a  century  of  the 
Stuarts  had  not  extinguished  their  blind  partiality  for  the  de- 
scendants of  the  old  Scoto-Irish  kings.  The  restoration  of  that 
royal  house  was,  therefore,  an  event  which  penetrated  to  the 
remotest  wilds  of  Connaught,  lighting  up  with  cheering  expects 
tion  the  most  desolate  hovels  of  the  proscribed.  To  the  Puritans 
settled  in  Ireland,  most  of  whom,  from  the  mean  condition  of 
menial  servants,  common  soldiers  and  subaltern  officers,  had  be- 
come rich  proprietors,  the  same  tidings  brought  apprehension 
and  alarm.  But  their  leaders,  the  Protestant  gentry  of  an  earlier 
date,  wealthy,  astute  and  energetic,  uniting  all  their  influence  for 
the  common  protection,  turned  this  event,  which  seemed  at  one 
time  to  threaten  their  ruin,  to  their  advantage  and  greater  secu- 
rity. The  chief  of  these  greater  leaders  was  the  accomplished 
Lord  Broghill,  whom  we  are  to  know  during  this  reign  under  his 
more  famous  title  of  Earl  of  Orrery. 

The  position  of  the  Irish  as  compared  with  the  English  Puri- 
tans, was  essentially  different  in  the  eyes  of  Ormond,  Clarendon 
and  the  other  councillors  of  the  king.  Though  the  former  repre- 
sented dissent  as  against  the  church,  they  also  represented  the 
English  as  against  the  Irish  interest,  in  Ireland.  As  dissenters 
they  were  disliked  and  ridiculed,  but  as  colonists  they  could  not 
be  disturbed.  When  national  antipathy  was  placed  in  oae  icalc 
47 


654  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRELAKD. 

and  religious  animosity  in  the  other,  the  intensely  national  feeling 
of  England  for  the  Cromwellians,  as  Englishmen  settled  in  a  hos- 
tile country,  prevailed  over  every  other  consideration.  In  this, 
as  in  all  other  conjunctures,  it  has  been  the  singular  infelicity  of 
the  one  island  to  be  subjected  to  a  policy  directly  opposite  to 
that  pursued  in  the  other.  While  in  England  it  was  considered 
wise  and  just  to  break  down  the  Puritans  as  a  party — through  the 
court,  the  pulpit  and  the  press ;  to  drive  the  violent  into  exile, 
and  to  win  the  lukewarm  to  conformity ;  in  Ireland  it  was  decided 
to  confirm  them  in  their  possessions,  to  leave  the  government  of 
the  kingdom  in  their  hands,  and  to  strengthen  their  position  by 
the  Acts  of  Settlement  and  Explanation.  These  acts  were  hailed 
as  "  the  Magna  Chart*  of  Irish  Protestantism,"  but  so  far  as  the 
vast  majority  of  the  people  were  concerned,  they  were  as  cruelly 
unjust  as  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  or  the  edieta 
which  banished  the  Moors  and  Jews  from  the  Spanish  peninsula. 
The  struggle  for  possession  of  the  soil  inaugurated  by  the  con- 
fiscations of  Elizabeth  and  James,  was  continued  against  great 
odds  by  the  Catholic  Irish,  throughout  this  reign.  Though  the 
royal  declaration  of  Breda  which  preceded  the  restoration  had 
not  mentioned  them  expressly,  they  still  claimed  under  it  not  only 
the  "liberty  to  tender  consciences,"  but  that  "just  satisfaction" 
to  those  unfairly  deprived  of  their  estates,  promised  in  that  decla- 
ration. Accordingly,  several  of  the  old  gentry  returned  from 
Connaught  or  places  abroad,  took  possession  of  their  old  hr  mes, 
or  made  their  way  at  once  to  Dublin  or  London  to  urge  their 
claims  to  their  former  estates.  To  their  dismay,  they  found  in 
Dublin,  Coote  and  BroghSU  established  as  Lords  Justices,  and  the 
new  parliament — the  first  that  sal  for  twenty  years — composed  of 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  Undertakers,  adventurers  and  Puri- 
tan  representatives  of  boroughs  from  which  all  the  Catholic 
"lectors  had  been  long  excluded.  The  Protestant  interest,  or 
"ascendancy  party,"  as  it  now  began  to  be  commonly  called, 
counted  in  the  Commons  198  members  to  64  Catholics;  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  *"2  Protestant  to  21  Catholic  peers.  The  former 
elected  Sir  Audley  Mervyn  their  Speaker,  and  the  able  but 
curiously  intricate  and  quaint  discourses  of  the  ancient  colleague 
of  Kelly  and  Darcy  in  the  assertion  of  Irish  legiilative  indepen- 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  566 

dence,  shows  how  different  was  the  spirit  of  Irish  Protestantism 
in  1661  as  compared  with  1641.  The  Lords  chose  Bramhall,  the 
long-exiled  Bishop  of  Derry,  now  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  as  their 
Speaker,  and  attempted  to  compel  their  members  "  to  take  the 
sacrament "  according  to  the  Anglican  ritual.  The  majority  of 
both  houses,  to  secure  the  good  will  of  Ormond  voted  him  the 
sum  of  £30,000,  and  then  proceeded  to  consider  "  the  Bill  of  Settle- 
ment," in  relation  to  landed  property.  The  Catholic  bar,  which 
had  been  apparently  restored  to  its  freedom,  presented  a  striking 
array  of  talent,  from  which  their  co-religionists  selected  those  by 
whom  they  desired  to  be  heard  at  the  bar  of  the  House.  The 
venerable  Darcy  and  the  accomplished  Belling  were  no  longer 
their  oracles  of  the  law ;  but  they  had  the  services  of  Sir  Nicholas 
Plunkett  an  old  confederate,  of  Sir  Richard  Nagle,  author  of  the 
famous  "  Coventry  Letter,"  of  Nugent,  afterwards  Lord  Riverston, 
and  other  able  men.  In  the  House  of  Lords  they  had  m  intrepid 
ally  hi  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  in  England  an  agent  equally  in- 
trepid, in  Colonel  Richard  Talbot,  afterwards  Earl  of  TyrconneU. 
The  diplomatic  and  parliamentary  struggle  between  the  two  in- 
terests, the  disinherited  and  the  new  proprietory,  was  too  pro- 
tracted, and  the  details  are  too  involved  for  elucidation  in  every 
part;  but  the  result  tells  its  own  story.  In  1676 — in  the  fifteenth 
year  of  the  restoration — the  new  settlers  possessed  above  4,500,000 
acres,  to  about  2,250,000  still  retained  by  the  old  owners.  These 
relative  proportions  were  exactly  the  reverse  of  those  existing 
before  the  Cromwellian  settlement ;  a  single  generation  had  seen 
this  great  revolution  accomplished  hi  landed  property. 

The  Irish  parliament  having  sent  over  to  England  the  htada 
of  their  bill,  according  to  the  constitutional  rule  established  by 
Poyning's  Act,  the  Irish  Catholics  sent  over  Sir  Nicholas  Plun- 
kett to  obtaii.  modifications  of  its  provisions.  But  Plunkett  was 
met  in  England  with  such  an  outcry  from  the  mob  and  the  press 
as  to  the  alleged  atrocities  of  the  confederate  war,  and  his  own 
former  negotiations  on  the  continent,  that  he  was  unable  to  effect 
anything ;  while  Colonel  Talbot,  for  his  too  warm  expostulations 
with  Ormond,  was  sent  to  the  Tower.  An  order  of  council,  for- 
bidding Plunkett  the  presence,  and  declaring  that  "  no  petition 
»r  further  address  be  made  from  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland, 


556  POPULAR    HI8T3RY    OF    IRELAND. 

as  to  the  Bill  of  Settlement,"  closed  the  controversy,  and  the  Ad 
«oon  after  received  the  ro^al  assent. 

Under  this  act,  a  court  was  established  at  Dublin,  to  try  the 
claims  of  "  nocent"  and  "  innocent"  Notwithstanding  every  in 
fluence  which  could  be  brought  to  bear  on  them,  the  judges,  wh 
were  Englishmen,  declared  in  their  first  session,  one  hundred  an- 
sixty  eight  innocent  to  nineteen  nocent.  Proceeding  in  this  spirit 
"  to  the  great  loss  and  dissatisfaction  of  the  Protestants,"  the 
latter,  greatly  alarmed,  procured  the  interference  of  Ormond,  now 
Lord  Lieutenant  (1662),  in  effecting  a  modification  of  the  com- 
mission, appointing  the  court,  by  which  its  duration  was  limited 
to  an  early  day.  The  consequence  was,  that  while  less  than  800 
claims  were  decided  on  when  the  fatal  day  arrived,  over  3,000 
were  left  unheard,  at  least  a  third  of  whom  were  admitted  even 
by  their  enemies  to  be  innocent.  About  600  others  had  been 
restored  by  name  in  the  Act  of  Settlement  itself;  but,  by  the  Act 
of  Explanation  (1605),  "no  Papist,  who  had  not  been  adjudged 
innocent,"  under  the  former  act,  could  be  so  adjudged  thereafter, 
"  or  entitled  to  claim  any  lands  or  settlemente."  Thus,  even  the 
inheritance  of  hope,  and  the  reversion  of  expectation,  were  ex- 
tinguished forever  for  the  sons  an*1  daughters  of  the  ancient 
gentry  of  the  kingdom. 

The  religious  liberties  of  this  people,  so  crippled  in  property 
and  political  power,  were  equally  at  the  mercy  of  the  mob  and  of 
the  monarch.  To  combat  the  war  of  calumny  waged  against 
them  by  the  Puritan  press  and  pulpit,  the  leading  Catholics  re- 
solved to  join  in  an  official  and  authentic  declaration  of  their  true 
principles,  as  to  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Pope,  their  allegiance 
to  the  prince,  end  their  relations  to  their  fellow  subjects  of  uther 
denominations.  With  this  intention  a  meeting  was  held  at  the 
house  of  the  Marquis  of  Clanrickarde,  in  Dublin,  at  which  Lords 
Clancarty,  Cnrlingford,  Fingnl,  Castlehaven,  and  Inchiquin,  and 
the  leading  commoners  of  their  faith,  were  present.  At  this 
meeting,  Father  Peter  Walsh,  a  Franciscan,  and  an  old  courtier 
of  Ormond's,  as  "  Procurator  of  all  the  Clergy  of  Ireland,"  secular 
and  regular,  produced  credentials  signed  by  the  surviving 
biphops  or  thoir  vicars  —  including  the  Primate  O'Reilly,  th« 
Bishops  of  Meath,  Ardagh,  Kilmore,  and  Ferns.  Richard  Bel- 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  667 

ling,  the  secretary  to  the  first  Confederate  Council,  and  envoy  to 
Rome,  submitted  the  celebrated  document  known  as  "  The  Re- 
monstrance," deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gallican 
church  of  that  day.  It  was  signed  by  about  seventy  Catholic 
peers  and  commoners,  by  the  Bishop  of  Kilmore,  by  Procurator 
Walsh,  and  by  the  townsmen  of  Wexford  —  almost  the  only 
urban  community  of  Catholics  remaining  in  the  country.  But 
the  propositions  it  contained  as  to  the  total  independency  of  the 
temporal  on  the  spiritual  power,  and  the  ecclesiastical  patronage 
of  princes,  was  condemned  at  the  Sorbonne,  at  Louvain,  and  at 
Rome.  The  regular  orders,  by  their  several  superiors,  utterly 
rejected  it;  the  exiled  bishops  withdrew  their  proxies  from 
Father  Walsh,  and  disclaimed  his  conduct ;  the  Internuncio  at 
Brussels,  charged  with  the  affairs  of  the  British  Isles,  denounced 
it  as  contrary  to  the  canons ;  and  the  elated  Procurator  found 
himself  involved  in  a  controversy  from  which  he  never  after- 
wards escaped,  and  with  which  his  memory  is  still  angrily 
associated. 

The  conduct  of  Ormond  in  relation  to  this  whole  business  of  the 
Remonstrance,  was  the  least  creditable  part  of  his  administra- 
tion. Writhing  under  the  eloquent  pamplilets  of  the  exiled 
Bishop  of  Ferns,  keenly  remembering  his  own  personal  wrongs 
against  the  former  generation  of  bishops,  of  whom  but  three  or 
four  were  yet  living,  he  resolved  "  to  work  that  division  among 
the  Romish  clergy,"  which  he  had  long  meditated.  With  this 
view,  he  connived  at  a  meeting  of  the  surviving  prelates  and  the 
superiors  of  regular  orders,  at  Dublin,  in  1666.  To  this  synod 
safe  conduct  was  permitted  to  the  Primate  O'Reilly,  banished  to 
Belgium  nine  years  before ;  to  Peter  Talbot,  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
John  Burke,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  Patrick  Plunkett,  Bishop  of 
Ardagh,  the  vicars-general  of  other  prelates,  and  the  superiors 
of  the  regulars.  This  venerable  body  deliberated  anxiously  for 
an  entire  week,  Father  Walsh  acting  as  embassador  between 
them  and  the  Viceroy  ;  at  length,  in  spite  of  all  politic  consider- 
ations, they  unanimously  rejected  the  servile  doctrine  of  tha 
"  Remonstrance."  substituting  instead  a  declaration  of  their  own 
dictation.  Ormond  now  cast  off  all  affectation  of  liberality  ;  Pri- 
mate O'Reilly  was  sent  back  to  hia  banishment,  th«  other  prelate* 
47* 


658  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

and  clergy  were  driven  back  to  their  hiding-places,  or  into  exile 
abroad,  and  the  wise,  experienced,  high-spirited  duke,  did  not 
hesitate  to  avail  himself  of  "  the  Popish  plot"  mania,  which  soon 
after  broke  out,  to  avenge  himself  upon  an  order  of  men  whom  he 
could  neither  break  nor  bend  to  his  purposes!  Of  1,100  secular 
priests,  and  700  regulars,  still  left,  only  sixty-nine  had  signed 
tho  Claurickarde  House  .Remonstrance. 

An  incident  of  this  same  year — 1666 — illustrates  more  forcibly 
than  description  could  do,  the  malignant  feeling  which  had  been 
cxi-itcd  in  England,  against  everything  Irish.  The  importation 
of  Irish  cattle  had  long  been  considered  an  English  grievance,  it 
was  now  declared  by  law  "  a  nuisance."  The  occasion  taken  tc 
pass  this  statute  was  as  ungracious  as  the  act  itself  was  despicable. 
In  consequence  of  "  the  great  fire,"  wliich  still  glows  for  us  in  the 
immortal  verse  of  Dry  den,  the  Irish  had  sent  over  to  the  distressed, 
a  contribution  of  15,000  bullocks.  This  was  considered  by  the 
generous  recipients  a  mere  pretence  to  preserve  the  trade  in  cattle 
between  the  two  kingdoms,  and  accordingly  both  houses,  after 
some  sharp  resistance  in  the  Lords',  gravely  enacted  that  the  im- 
portation of  Irish  beef  into  England  was  "  a  nuisance,"  to  be  abated. 
From  this  period  most  probably  dates  the  famous  English  sarcasm 
against  Irish  build. 

The  act  prohibiting  the  export  of  cattle  from  Ireland,  and  the 
equally  exelusive  and  unjust  Navigation  Act— originally  devised 
by  Cromwell — so  paralyzed  every  Irish  industry,  that  the  Puritan 
party  became  almost  as  dissatisfied  as  the  Catholics.  They  main- 
tained a  close  correspondence  with  their  brethren  in  England, 
and  began  to  speculate  on  the  possibilities  of  another  revolution. 
Ormorid,  to  satisfy  their  demands,  distributed  20,000  stand  of 
arms  among  them,  and  reviewed  the  Leinster  Militia,  on  the  Cur- 
rngh,  in  1 667.  The  next  year  ho  was  recalled,  and  Lords  Robarta, 
Berkely,  and  Essex,  successively  appointed  to  the  government. 
The  first,  a  Puritan  and  almost  a  regicide,  held  office  but  a  few 
months ;  the  second,  a  cavalier  and  a  friend  of  toleration,  for  two 
years ;  while  Essex,  one  of  those  fair-minded  but  yielding  charac- 
ters known  in  the  next  reign  as  "Trimmers,"  petitioned  for  hi§ 
own  recall,  and  Ormond's  restoration,  in  1676.  The  only  event* 
which  marked  those  hut  nine  years — from  Ormond'i  removal  til] 


POPULAR   HISTORY    0V  IRELAND.  559 

his  reappointment — were  the  surprise  of  Carrickfergus  by  a  party 
of  unpaid  soldiers,  and  their  desperate  defence  of  that  ancient 
stronghold ;  the  embassies  to  and  from  the  Irish  Catholics  and  th*» 
court,  of  Colonel  Richard  Talbot;  and  the  establishment  of  ex 
tensive  woollen  manufactories  at  Thomastown,  Oallan,  and  Kil 
kenny,  under  the  patronage  of  Ormond. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REIGN  OF   CHARLES  H.  (CONCLUDED.) 

FOR  the  third  tune,  the  aged  Ormond,  now  arrived  at  the 
period  usually  allotted  to  the  life  of  man,  returned  to  Ireland,  with 
the  rank  of  viceroy.  During  the  ensuing  seven  years,  he  clung 
to  power  with  all  the  tenacity  of  his  youth,  and  all  the  policy  01 
his  prime ;  they  were  seven  years  of  extraordinary  sectarian  panic 
and  excitement — the  years  of  the  Cabal,  the  Popish  plot,  and  the 
Exclusion  Bill,  in  England — and  of  fanatical  conspiracies  and  ex~ 
plosions  almost  as  dangerous  in  Ireland. 

The  Popish  plot  mania  held  possession  of  the  English  people 
much  longer  than  any  other  moral  epidemic  of  equal  virulence. 
In  the  month  of  October,  1678,  its  alleged  existence  in  Ireland 
was  commuicated  to  Ormond ;  in  July,  1681,  its  most  illustrious 
victim,  Archbishop  Plunkett,  perished  on  the  scaffold  at  Tyburn. 
"Within  these  two  points  of  time  what  a  chronicle  of  madnesa, 
folly,  perjury,  and  cruelty,  might  be  written  ? 

Ormond,  too  old  in  statecraft  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  these 
incredible  plots,  was  also  too  well  aware  of  the  dangerous  element 
of  fanaticism  represented  by  Titus  Gates,  and  his  imitators,  to  sub- 
ject himself  to  suspicion.  On  the  first  intelligence  of  the  plot,  he 
instantly  issued  his  proclamation  for  the  arrest  of  Archbishop  Tal- 
bot, of  Dublin,  who  had  been  permitted  to  return  from  exile  under 
the  rule  of  Lord  Berkely,  and  had  since  resided  with  his  brother 
Colonel  Talbot,  at  Cartown,  near  Maynooth.  This  prelate  was 
of  Ormond' s  own  age,  and  of  a  family  aa  ancient ;  while  his  learn* 


t>60  POPULAR    HISTORY   Of   IRELAND. 

Ing,  courage,  and  morality,  made  h  m  an  ornament  to  his  order 
lit  was  seized  in  his  sick  bed  at  Cartowii,  carried  to  Dublin  in  a 
chair,  and  confined  a  close  prisoner  in  the  castle,  where  he  died 
two  years  later.  He  was  the  last  distinguished  captive  destined 
to  end  his  days  in  that  celebrated  state  prison,  which  has  sine* 
been  generally  dedicated  to  the  peaceful  purposes  of  a  reflected 
royalty. 

Colonel  Talbot  was  at  the  sume  time  arrested,  but  allowed  to 
retire  beyond  seas ;  Lord  Mountgarret,  an  octogenarian,  and  in  ui« 
dotage,  was  seized,  but  nothing  could  be  made  out  against  him ;  a 
Colonel  Peppard  was  also  denounced  from  England,  but  no  such 
person  was  found  to  exist.  So  far  the  first  year  of  the  plot  had 
passed  over,  and  proved  nothing  against  the  Catholic  Irish.  But 
the  example  of  successful  villainy  in  England,  of  Gates  idolized, 
pensioned,  and  all-powerful,  extended  to  the  sister  kingdom,  and 
brought  an  illustrious  victim  to  the  scaffold.  This  was  Oliver 
Plunkett,  a  scion  of  the  noble  family  of  Fingal,  who  had  been 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  since  the  death  of  Dr.  O'Reilly,  in  exile, 
in  1669.  Such  had  been  the  prudence  and  circumspection  of  Dr. 
Plunkett,  during  his  perilous  administration,  that  the  agents  of 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  sent  over  to  concoct  evidence  for  the  occasion, 
were  afraid  to  bring  him  to  trial  in  the  vicinage  of  his  arrest,  or 
in  his  own  country.  Accordingly,  they  caused  him  to  be  removed 
from  Dublin  to  London,  contrary  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  both 
Kingdoms,  which  had  first  been  violated  towards  state  prisoners 
in  the  case  of  Lord  Maguire,  forty  years  before. 

Dr.  Plunkett  after  ten  months'  confinement  without  trial  in  Ire- 
land, was  removed,  1 680,  and  arraigned  at  London,  on  the  8th  of 
June,  1C81,  without  having  had  permission  to  communicate  with 
hia  friends  or  to  send  for  witnesses.  The  prosecution  was  con- 
ducted by  Maynard  and  Jeffries,  in  violation  of  every  form  of 
law,  and  every  consideration  of  justice.  A  "  crown  agent,"  whose 
name  is  given  as  Gorman,  was  introduced  by  "  a  stranger "  in 
court,  and  volunteered  testimony  in  his  favor.  The  Earl  of  Essex 
interceded  with  the  king  on  his  behalf,  but  Charles  answered' 
almost  in  the  words  of  Pilate — "  I  cannot  pardon  him,  because  I 
dare  not.  Ilia  blood  be  upon  your  conscience ;  you  could  have 
laved  him  if  you  plei  sed.H  The  Jury  after  a  quarter  of  an  hour'f 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  561 

deliberation  brought  in  their  verdict  of  guilty,  and  the  brutal 
chief-justice  condemned  him  to  be  hung,  emboweled,  and  quar- 
tered on  the  1st  day  of  July,  1681.  The  venerable  martyr,  for 
such  he  may  well  be  called,  bowed  his  head  to  the  bench,  and 
exclaimed :  Den  gratias  !  Eight  years  from  the  very  day  of  his 
execution,  on  the  banks  of  that  river  beside  which  he  had  been 
seized  and  dragged  from  his  retreat,  the  last  of  the  Stuart  kings 
was  stricken  from  his  throne;  and  his  dynasty  stricken  from  his- 
tory !  Does  not  the  blood  of  the  innocent  cry  to  Heaven  for 
vengeance  ? 

The  charges  against  Dr.  Plunkett  were,  that  Le  maintained 
treasonable  correspondence  with  France  and  Rome,  and  the  Irish 
on  the  continent ;  that  he  had  organized  an  insurrection  in  Louth, 
Monaghon,  Cavan,  and  Armagh ;  that  he  made  preparations  for 
the  landing  of  a  French  force  at  Carlingford ;  and  that  he  had  held 
several  meetings  to  raise  men  and  money  for  these  purposes.  Utterly 
absurd  and  false  as  these  charges  were,  they  still  indicate  the 
troubled  apprehensions  which  filled  the  dreams  of  the  ascendency 
party.  The  fear  of  French  invasion,  of  new  insurrections,  of  the 
resumption  of  estates,  haunted  them  by  night  and  day.  Every 
sign  was  to  them  significant  of  danger,  and  every  rumor  of  con- 
spiracy was  taken  for  fact.  The  report  of  a  strange  fleet  off  the 
Southern  coast,  which  turned  out  to  be  English,  threw  them  all 
into  panic ;  and  the  Corpus  Christ!  crosses  which  the  peasantry 
affixed  to  their  doors,  were  nothing  but  signs  for  the  Papist  de- 
stroyer to  pass  by,  and  to  spare  his  fellows  in  the  general  mas- 
sacre of  Protestants. 

Under  the  pressure  of  these  panics,  real  or  pretended,  procla- 
mation after  proclamation  issued  from  the  castle.  By  one  of 
these  instruments,  Ormond  prohibited  Catholics  from  entering  the 
Castle  of  Dublin,  or  any  other  fortress ;  from  holding  fairs  or 
markets  within  the  walls  of  corporate  towns,  and  from  carrying 
arms  to  such  resorts.  By  another,  he  declared  all  relatives  of 
known  Tories — a  Gaelic  term  for  a  driver  of  prey — to  be  arrested, 
and  banished  the  kingdom,  within  fourteen  days,  unless  such 
Tories  were  killed,  or  surrendered,  within  that  time.  Where  thii 
device  failed  to  reach  the  destined  victims — as  in  the  celebrated 
casa  of  Count  Redmond  O'Hanlon — it  is  to  be  feared  that  he  did. 


£62  >OPtJLAR  BISTORT   0* 

not  hesitate  to  whet  the  dagger  of  the  assassia,  which  was  stifl 
sometimes  employed,  even  in  the  British  Islands,  to  remove 
a  dangerous  antagonist.  Count  O'Hanlon,  a  gentleman  of  ancient 
lineage,  as  accomplished  as  Orrery,  or  Ossory,  was  indeed  an 
outlaw  to  the  code  then  in  force ;  but  the  stain  of  his  cowardly 
assassination  must  forever  blet  and  rot  the  princely  escutcheon 
of  James,  Duke  of  Ormoud. 

The  violence  of  religious  and  social  persecution  began  to  sub- 
side during  the  last  two  or  three  years  of  Charles  II.  Monmouth's 
banishment,  Shaftesbury's  imprisonment,  the  execution  of  Russell 
and  Sidney  on  the  scaffold,  marked  the  return  of  the  English 
public  mind  to  political  pursuits  and  objects.  Early  in  1686,  the 
king  was  taken  mortally  ill.  In  bis  last  moments  he  received  the 
rites  of  the  Catholic  church,  from  the  hands  of  Father  Huddle 
eton,  who  was  said  to  have  saved  his  life  at  the  battle  of  Worces- 
ter, and  who  was  now  even  more  anxious  to  save  his  souL 

This  event  took  place  on  the  16th  of  February.  King  Jamea 
was  immediately  proclaimed  successor  to  his  brother.  One  of 
his  first  acts  was  to  recall  Ormond  from  Ireland  and  to  appoint 
in  his  place  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  son  of  the  historian  and 
statesman  of  the  Restoration.  Ormond  obeyed,  not  without  regret ; 
he  survived  his  fall  about  three  years.  He  was  interred  in  West- 
minster in  1688,  three  months  before  the  landing  of  William,  and 
the  second  banishment  of  the  Stuarts. 


CHAPTER  III. 

rat    STATE     OF    RELIGION   AND     LEARNING    IN    IRELAND    DDRINO   THB 
SEVENTEENTH    OENTUBT. 

BEFORE  plunging  into  the  troubled  torrent  of  the  revolution  of 
1688,  let  us  cast  a  glance  back  on  the  century,  and  consider  th« 
•fate  of  learning  and  religion  during  those  three  generations. 

If  we  divide  the  Irish  literature  of  this  century  by  subject*, 
w«  shall  find  extant  a  respectable  body  both  in  quantity  and 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  663 

quality,  of  theology,  history,  law,  politics,  and  poetry.  If  we 
divide  it  by  the  languages  in  which  that  literature  was  written, 
ire  may  consider  it  as  Latin,  Gaelic,  and  English. 

I.  Latin  continued  throughout  Europe,  even  till  this  late  day, 
the  language  of  the  learned,  but  especially  of  theologians,  jurists, 
and  historians.  In  Latin,  the  great  tomes  of  O'Sullivan,  Usher, 
Colgan,  Wadding,  and  White,  were  written — volumes  which  re- 
main as  so  many  monuments  of  the  learning  and  industry  of  that 
age.  The  chief  objects  of  these  illustrious  writers  were,  to 
restore  the  ancient  ecclesiastical  history  of  Ireland,  to  rescue  the 
memory  of  her  saints  and  doctors  from  oblivion,  and  to  introduce 
the  native  annals  of  the  kingdom  to  the  attention  of  Europe. 
Though  Usher  differed  in  religion,  and  in  his  theory  of  the  early 
connection  of  the  Irish  with  the  Roman  Church,  from  all  the  rest, 
yet  he  stands  preeminent  among  them  for  labor  and  research. 
The  Waterford  Franciscan,  Wadding,  can  omy  be  named  with 
him  for  inexhaustible  patience,  various  learning,  and  untiring 
seal.  Both  were  honored  of  princes  and  parliaments.  The  Con- 
'ederates  would  have  made  Wadding  a  cardinal ;  Ki  ag  James 
made  Usher  an  archbishop :  one  instructed  the  Westminster 
Assembly ;  the  other  was  sent  by  the  King  of  Spain  to  maintain 
the  thesis  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  at  Rome,  and  subsequently 
was  entrusted  by  the  Pope  to  report  upon  the  propositions  of  Jan- 
senius.  O'Sullivan,  Conde  de  Berehaven,  in  Spain,  and  Peter 
White,  have  left  us  each  two  or  three  Latin  volumes  on  the 
history  of  th«  country,  highly  prized  by  all  subsequent  writers. 
But  the  most  indispensable  of  the  legacies  left  us  in  this  tongue, 
are  Colgan's  '  Acta  Sanctorum  " — from  January  to  March, — and 
Dr.  John  Lynch's  "  Cambrensis  E versus."  Many  other  works 
and  authors  might  be  mentioned,  but  these  are  the  great  Latinista 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  most  important  services  rendered 
to  our  national  history. 

IL  In  the  Gaelic  literature  of  the  country  we  count  Geoffrey 
Keating,  Dnald  McFirbis,  and  "  the  Four  Masters  "  of  Donegal 
Few  writers  have  been  more  rashly  judged  than  Keating.  A 
poet,  as  well  as  a  historian,  he  gave  a  prominence  in  the  early 
chapters  of  his  history  to  bardic  tales,  which  English  critics  have 
seized  upon  to  damage  hia  reputation  for  truthfulness  and  good 


564  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

cense.  But  these  tales  be  gives  as  tales — as  curious  ai  d  illustratiTt 
— rather  than  as  credible  and  unquestionable.  The  purity  of  Us 
style  is  greatly  extolled  by  Gaelic  critics ;  and  the  interest  of  his 
narrative,  even  in  a  translation,  is  undoubted.  McFirbis,  »n 
annalist  and  genealogist  by  inheritance,  is  known  to  us  not  ouiy 
for  his  profound  native  lore,  and  tragic  death,  but  also  for  the 
assistance  he  rendered  Sir  James  Ware,  Dr.  Lynch,  and  Roderick 
O'Flaherty.  The  master-piece,  however,  of  our  Gaelic  literature 
of  this  age,  is  the  work  now  called  "  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Mas- 
ters." In  the  reign  of  James  I.,  a  few  Franciscan  friars,  living 
partly  in  Donegal  Abbey  and  partly  in  St.  Anthony's  College,  at 
Lou  vain,  undertook  to  collect  and  collate  all  the  manuscript  re- 
mains of  Irish  antiquity  they  could  gather  or  borrow,  or  be 
allowed  to  copy.  Father  Hugh  Ward  was  the  head  of  this  group, 
and  by  him  the  lay  brother  Michael  O'Clery,  one  of  the  greatest 
benefactors  his  country  ever  saw,  was  sent  from  Belgium  to  Ire- 
land. From  1620  to  1630,  O'Clery  traveled  through  the  kingdom, 
buying  or  transcribing  everything  he  could  find  relating  to  the 
lives  of  the  Irish  saints,  which  he  sent  to  Louvain,  where  Ward 
and  Colgan  undertook  to  edit  and  illustrate  them.  Father  Ward 
died  in  the  early  part  of  the  undertaking,  but  Father  Colgan 
spent  twenty  years  in  prosecuting  the  original  design,  so  far  as 
concerned  our  ecclesiastical  biography. 

After  collecting  these  materials,  Father  O'Clery  waited,  as  he 
tells  us,  on  "  the  noble  Fergall  O'Gara,"  one  of  the  two  knighta 
elected  to  represent  the  county  of  Sligo  in  the  Parliament  of  1 684, 
and  perceiving  the  anxiety  of  O'Gara,  "  from  the  cloud  which  at 
present  hangs  over  our  anciei<t  Milesian  race,"  he  proposed  to 
collect  the  civil  and  military  annals  of  Erin  into  one  large  digest. 
O'Gara,  struck  with  this  proposal,  freely  supplied  the  means,  and 
O'Clery  and  his  coadjutors  set  to  work,  in  the  Franciscan  Convent 
of  Donegal,  which  still  stood,  not  more  than  half  in  ruins. 

On  the  2'2d  of  January,  1632,  they  commenced  this  digest, 
»i.J  on  thu  l;jth  of  August,  1686,  it  was  finished — having  occu- 
pied them  four  years,  seven  months  and  nineteen  days.  Th« 
MS.,  dedicated  to  O'Gara,  is  authenticated  by  the  superiors  of 
the  convent;  fr.mi  that  original  two  editions  hav«  recently  b«en 
printed  in  both  languages. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   07   IRELAND.  565 

These  annals  extend  to  the  year  1616,  the  time  of  the  com- 
pilers. Originally  they  bore  the  title  of  "  Annals  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Ireland,"  but  Colgan  having  quoted  them  as  "  The  Annals  of 
thf  IV.  Masters "  that  name  remains  ever  since.  The  "  Four 
M  asters  "  were  Brother  Michael  O'Clery,  Conary  and  Peregrine 
O'Clery,  his  brothers,  both  laymen  and  natives  of  Donegal,  and 
Florence  Conroy,  of  Roscommon,  another  hereditary  antiquary. 

She  first  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  Gaelic  tongue, 
so  far  as  we  are  aware,  appeared  at  Dublin,  in  1603,  in  quarto. 
The  translation  was  the  work  of  a  native  scholar,  C'Cionga 
(Anglicized,  King).  It  was  made  at  the  expense  and  under  the 
supervision  of  Dr.  William  O'Donnell,  one  of  the  first  fellows  of 
Trinity,  and  published  at  the  cost  of  the  people  of  Connaught. 
Dr.  O'Donnell,  an  amiable  man,  and  an  enemy  of  persecution,  be. 
came  subsequently  archbishop  of  Tuam,  in  which  dignity  he  died, 
in  1628.  A  translation  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  by 
O'Donnell,  appeared  early  in  the  century,  and  towards  its  close 
(1685),  a  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  made  for  Bishop  Bedell 
by  the  Gaelic  scholars  of  Meath  and  Cavan,  was  published  at  the 
expense  of  the  famous  Robert  Boyle.  Bedell  had  also  caused  to 
be  published  Gaelic  translations  of  certain  homilies  of  Saint  Leo 
and  Saint  John  Chrysostom,  on  the  importance  of  studying  the 
holy  Scriptures.  The  only  other  Gaelic  publications  of  this 
period  were  issued  from  the  Irish  colleges  at  Louvain  and  Rome. 
Thence  issued  the  devotional  tracts  of  Conroy,  of  Gernon,  and 
O'Molloy,  and  the  Irish  grammars  of  O'Clery  and  Stapleton- 
The  devotional  tracts,  with  their  fanciful  titles,  of  "  Lamps,"  and 
"  Mirrors,"  were  smuggled  across  from  Ostend  and  Dunkirk  with 
other  articles  of  contraband,  and  did  much  to  keep  alive  the  flame 
of  faith  and  hope  in  the  hearts  of  the  Gaelic-speaking  popula- 
tion. 

The  bardic  order  also,  though  shorn  of  much  of  their  ancient 
tplendor,  and  under  the  Puritan  regime  persecuted  as  vagrants, 
•loll  flourished  as  an  estate  of  the  realm.  The  national  tendency 
to  poetic  writing  was  not  confined  to  the  hereditary  verse  makers, 
but  was  illustrated  by  such  men  as  the  martyred  Plunkett,  and  the 
pishops  of  Meath  and  Kerry— Dr.  Thomas  Dense,  and  Dr.  John 
O'Connell.  But  the  gj-eat  body  of  Gaelic  verso  of  the  first  half 
48 


£66  POPULAR    HISTOBT    OF   IRELAND. 

of  this  century  is  known  under  the  name  of  "  the  Content/ons  of 
the  Bards,"  the  subject  being  the  relative  dignity,  power,  and 
prowess  of  the  North  and  South.  The  gauntlet  in  this  poetic 
warfare,  was  thrown  down  by  McDaire,  the  Bard  of  Donogh 
O'Brien,  fourth  Earl  of  Thomond,  and  taken  up  on  the  part  of 
Ulster  by  Lewy  O'Clery.  Reply  led  to  rejoinder,  and  one  epistle 
to  another,  until  all  the  chief  bards  of  the  four  provinces  had 
taken  sides.  Half  a  dozen  writers,  pro  and  con,  were  particularly 
distinguished ;  McDaire  himself,  Turlogh  O'Brien,  and  Art  oge 
O'lveefe  on  behalf  of  the  Southerners ;  O'Clery,  O'Donnell,  the 
two  McEgans,  and  Robert  McArthur  on  the  side  of  the  North. 

An  immense  mass  of  devotional  Gaelic  poetry  may  be  traced 
to  tliis  period.  The  religious  wars,  the  calamities  of  the  church 
Bud  of  the  people,  inspired  many  a  priest  and  layman  to  seize 
the  harp  of  David,  and  pour  forth  his  hopes  and  griefs  in  sacred 
song.  The  lament  of  Mac  Ward  over  the  Ulster  princes  buried  at 
Rome,  the  odes  of  Dermod  Conroy  and  Flan  McNamee,  in  honor 
of  our  Blessed  Lady,  are  of  this  class.  Thus  it  happened  that 
the  bardic  order,  which  in  ancient  tunes  was  the  formidable 
enemy  of  Christianity,  became  through  adversity  and  affliction 
its  greatest  supporter. 

111.  Our  Hiberno-English  literature  is  almost  entirely  the  crea- 
tion of  this  century.  Except  some  few  remarkable  state  papers,  we 
have  no  English  writings  of  any  reputation  of  an  earlier  period. 
Now,  however,  when  the  language  of  the  empire,  formed  and  en- 
riched by  the  great  minds  of  Elizabeth's  era,  began  to  extend 
its  influence  at  home  and  abroad,  a  school  of  Iliberno  English  writ- 
ers appeared,  both  numerous  and  distinguished.  This  school 
was  as  yet  composed  mainly  of  two  classes — the  dramatic  poets, 
and  the  pamphleteers.  Of  the  latter  were  Bishop  French,  Sir 
Richard  Nagle,  Sir  Richard  Belling,  Lord  Orrery,  Father  Peter 
Walsh,  and  William  Molyneuz ;  of  the  former,  Ludowick  Barry, 
Sir  John  Denham,  the  Earl  of  Roscommon,  and  Richard  Flecknoe, 
— the  Mac  Flecknoe  of  Dryden.  It  is  true  there  appeared  as  yet 
no  supreme  name  like  Swift's ;  but  aa  indicating  the  gradual  ex- 
tension of  the  English  language  into  Ireland,  the  popular  pam- 
phlets and  pieces  written  for  the  stage  are  illustrations  of  oui 
mental  life  not  to  be  overlooked. 


POPULAR   BISTORT    Or   IRELAND.  567 

Of  the  ancient  schools  of  the  island,  after  the  final  suppression 
of  the  college  at  Galway  in  1662,  not  one  remained.  A  diocesan 
tollege  at  Kilkenny,  and  the  Dublin  University,  were  alone  open 
»o  the  youth  of  the  country.  But  the  University  remained  ex- 
clusively in  possession  of  the  Protestant  interest,  nor  did  it  give 
to  the  world  during  the  century,  except  Usher,  Ware  and  Orrery, 
any  graduate  of  national,  not  to  say,  European  reputation.  In 
the  bye-ways  of  the  South  and  West,  in  the  Irish  colleges  on  the 
continent  of  Europe — at  Paris,  Louvain,  Lisle,  Salamanca,  Lis- 
bon, or  Rome — the  children  of  the  proscribed  *najority  could 
alone  acquire  a  degree  in  learning,  human  or  divine,  It  was  as 
impossible  two  centuries  ago,  to  speak  of  Trinity  Coflege  with 
respect,  as  it  is  in  our  time,  remembering  all  it  has  since  done,  to 
speak  of  it  without  veneration. 

Though  the  established  church  had  now  completed  its  century 
and  a  halt  of  existence,  it  was  as  far  from  the  hearts  of  the  Irish 
as  ever.  Though  the  amiable  Bedell  and  the  learned  O'Donnell 
had  caused  the  sacred  Scriptures  to  be  translated  into  the  Gaelic 
tongue,  few  converts  had  been  made  from  the  Catholic  ranks, 
while  the  spirit  ot  animosity  was  inflamed  by  a  sense  of  the  cruel 
and  undeserved  disabilities  inflicted  in  the  name  of  religion.  The 
manifold  sects  introduced  under  Cromwell  gave  a  keener  edge  to 
Catholic  contempt  for  the  doctrines  of  the  reformation;  and 
although  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  threw  the  extreme  sect, 
aries  into  the  shade,  it  added  nothing  to  the  influence  of  the 
church,  except  the  fatal  gift  of  political  patronage.  For  the  first 
time,  the  high  dignity  of  Archbishop  of  Armagh  began  to  be 
regarded  as  the  inheritance  of  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Lords ; 
then  Brahmall  and  Boyle  laid  the  foundation  of  that  primatial 
power  which  Boulter  and  Stone  upheld  under  another  dynasty, 
but  which  vanished  before  the  first  dawn  of  parliamentary  inde- 
pendence. 

In  the  quarter  of  a  century  which  elapsed  from  the  restoration 
to  the  revolution,  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  clergy  and  laity 
was  such  as  we  have  already  described.  In  1662,  an  historian  of  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  in  Ireland  described  the  sufferings  of  ecclesi- 
astics as  deplorable ;  they  were  forced  to  fly  to  the  herds  of  cattle 
In  remote  places,  to  §eek  a  refuge  in  barns  and  stables,  or  to  tleeji 


668  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF 

at  n.jjjht  in  the  porticoes  of  temples,  lest  they  should  endanger 
the  safety  of  the  laity.  In  that  same  year,  Orrery  advised  Or- 
mond  to  purge  the  walled  towns  of  papists,  who  were  still  "  three 
to  one  Protestant ;"  in  1672,  Sir  William  Petty  computed  them  at 
"  eight  to  one  "  of  the  entire  population. 

"  So  captive  Israel  multiplied  in  chains." 

The  martyrdom  of  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  in  1680,  and  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Armagh  in  1681,  were,  however,  the  last  of 
a  series  of  executions  for  conscience-sate,  from  the  relation  of 
which  the  historian  might  well  have  been  excused,  if  it  was  not 
necessary  to  remind  our  emancipated  posterity  at  what  a  price 
they  have  been  purchased. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ACCESSION  OF  JAKES  II. TYRCO.VNELI/S  ADMINISTRATION. 

FROM  the  accession  of  King  James  till  his  final  flight  from  Ire- 
land, in  July,  1690,  there  elapsed  an  interval  of  five  years  and  five 
months ;  a  period  fraught  with  consequences  of  the  highest  in- 
terest to  this  history.  The  new  king  was,  on  his  accession,  in  his 
fifty-second  year ;  he  had  served,  as  Duke  of  York,  with  credit 
both  by  land  and  sea,  was  an  avowed  Catholic,  and  married  to  a 
Catholic  princess,  the  beautiful  and  unfortunate  Mary  of  Modena- 

Within  a  month  from  the  proclamation  of  the  king,  Ormond 
quitted  the  government  for  the  last  time,  leaving  Primate  Boyle, 
and  Lord  Granard,  as  Justices.  In  January,  1686,  Lord  Claren- 
don, son  of  the  historian,  assumed  the  government,  in  which  he 
c«ntlnued,  till  the  16th  of  March,  1687.  The  day  following  the 
national  anniversary,  Colonel  Richard  Talbot,  Earl  of  Tyrconnell, 
a  Catholic,  and  the  former  agent  for  the  Catholics,  was  installed 
as  Lord  Deputy.  Other  events  connecting  these  with  each  other, 
had  filled  with  astonishment  and  apprehension  the  ascendancy 
party. 

James  proceeded  openly  with  what  he  hoped  to  make  a  counter 


HISTORY    QV   IKKLAA'D.  £69 

reformation  of  England,  and  to  accomplish  which,  he  relied  OU 
France,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Ireland  on  the  other.  In  both  cades 
he  alarmed  the  fears  and  wounded  the  pride  of  England ;  but  when 
he  proceeded  from  one  illegality  to  another,  when  he  began  to 
exercise  a  dispensing  power  above  the  laws — to  instruct  the  judges, 
to  menace  the  parliament,  and  imprison  the  bishops — the  nobility, 
the  commons,  and  the  army  gradually  combined  against  him,  and 
at  last  invited  over  the  Prince  of  Orange,  as  the  most  capable  vin- 
dicator of  their  outraged  constitution. 

The  headlong  king  had  a  representative  equally  rash,  in  Tyr- 
connell.  He  was  a  man  old  enough  to  remember  well  the  u£  • 
rising  of  1641,  had  lived  in  intimacy  with  James  as  Duke  of 
York,  was  personally  brave,  well  skilled  in  intrigue,  but  vain, 
loud-spoken,  confident,  and  incapable  of  a  high  command  in  mili- 
tary affairs.  The  colonelcy  of  an  Irish  regiment,  the  earldom  of 
Tryconnell,  and  a  seat  in  the  secret  council  or  cabinet  of  the 
king,  were  honors  conferred  on  him  during  the  year  of  James'» 
accession.  "When  Clarendon  was  named  lord-lieutenant,  at  the 
beginning  of  1686,  Tyrconnell  was  sent  over  with  him  as  lieu- 
tenant-general  of  the  army.  At  his  instigation,  a  proclamation 
issued,  that  "  all  classes"  of  his  majesty's  subjects  might  be  al- 
lowed to  serve  in  the  army  ;  and  another  that  all  arms,  hitherto 
given  out,  should  be  deposited,  for  greater  security,  at  one  of  the 
Kiug's  stores  provided  for  the  purpose  in  each  town  and  county. 
Thus  that  exclusively  Protestant  militia,  which  for  twenty  yeara 
had  executed  the  Act  of  Settlement  and  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
in  every  quarter  of  the  kingdom,  found  themselves  suddenly  dia. 
armed,  and  a  new  Catholic  army  rising  on  their  ruins.  The  num 
bers  disbanded  are  nowhere  stated ;  they  probably  amounted  to 
10,000  or  1 5,000  men ;  and  very  naturally  they  became  warm 
partisans  of  the  "Williamite  revolution.  The  recriminations  which 
arose  between  the  new  and  the  old  militia  were  not  confined  to  the 
nict  namea  Whig  and  Tory,  or  to  the  bandying  of  sarcasms  on 
each  others'  origin ;  swords  were  not  unfrequently  drawn,  and 
muakets  discharged,  even  in  the  streeia  of  Dublin,  under  the  very 
walls  of  the  castle. 

Through  Tyrconnell's  influence,  a  similar  revolution  had  been 
wrought  in  the  exclusive  character  of  the  courts  of  justice,  and 
48* 


570  POPULAR  BISTORT  or  IRELAND. 

the  corporations  of  towns,  to  that  which  remodeled  the  militia. 
Rice,  Daly,  and  Nugent,  were  elevated  to  the  bench  during  Lord 
Clarendon's  tune ;  the  Corporation  of  Dublin  having  refused  to 
surrender  their  exclusive  charter,  were  summarily  ejected  by  a 
quo  warraiito,  issued  in  the  exchequer ;  other  towns  were  similarly 
treated,  or  induced  to  make  surrender,  and  a  new  series  of  char. 
ters  at  once  granted  by  James,  entitling  Catholics  to  the  freedom 
of  the  boroughs,  and  the  highest  municipal  offices.  And  now,  for 
the  first  time  in  that  generation,  Catholk  mayors  and  sheriffs, 
escorted  by  Catholic  troops  as  guards  of  honor,  were  seen  march- 
ing in  open  day  to  their  own  places  of  worship,  to  the  dismay  and 
astonishment  of  the  ascendancy  party.  Not  that  all  Protestants 
were  excluded  either  from  town  councils,  the  militia,  or  the 
bench,  but  those  only  were  elected  or  appointed,  who  concurred 
in  the  new  arrangements,  and  were  therefore,  pretty  certain  to 
forfeit  the  confidence  of  their  co-religionists  in  proportion  as  they 
deserved  that  of  the  deputy.  Topham  and  Coghill,  Masters  in 
Chancery,  were  deprived  of  their  offices,  and  the  Protestant  Chan- 
cellor was  arbitrarily  removed  to  make  way  for  Baron  Rice,  a 
Catholic.  The  exclusive  character  of  Trinity  College  was  next 
assailed,  and  though  James  did  not  venture  to  revoke  the  charter 
of  Elizabeth,  establishing  communion  with  the  Church  of  England 
as  the  test  of  fellowship,  the  internal  administration  was  in 
several  particulars  interfered  with,  its  plate  was  seized  in  the 
King's  name  under  plea  of  being  public  property,  and  the  annual 
parliamentary  grant  of  £388,  was  discontinued.  These  arbitrary 
acts  filled  the  more  judicious  Catholics  with  apprehension,  but 
gained  the  loud  applause  of  the  unreasoning  multitude.  Dr.  Mac- 
guire,  the  successor  of  the  martyred  Plunkett,  who  felt  in  Ulster 
the  rising  tide  of  resistance,  was  among  the  signers  of  a  memorial 
to  the  king,  dutifully  remonstrating  against  the  violent  proceed- 
ings of  his  deputy.  From  Rome  also,  disapprobation  was  more 
•han  once  expressed,  but  all  without  avail ;  neither  James  nor 
Talbot  could  be  brought  to  reason.  The  Protestants  of  the  easteni 
and  southern  towns  and  counties  who  could  contrive  to  quit  theii 
homes,  did  so ;  hundreds  fled  to  Holland  to  return  in  the  ranks  61 
the  Prince  of  Orange  ;  thousands  fled  to  England,  bringing  with 
thorn  their  tale  of  oppression,  embellished  with  all  the  bitter  ex 


BISTORT   OP   IRELAND.  671 

Aggeratlon  of  exiles;  ten  thousand  removed  from  Leuster  into 
Ulster,  soon  to  recrose  the  Boyne,  under  very  different  auspices- 
Very  s«on  a  close  correspondence  was  established  between  the 
fugitives  in  Holland,  England,  and  Ulster,  and  a  powerful  lever 
was  thus  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  to  work  tho 
downfall  of  his  uncle  and  father-in-law.  But  the  best  allies  of 
William  were,  after  all,  the  folly  and  fatuity  of  James.  The  Im- 
portation of  Irish  troops,  by  entire  battalions,  gave  the  last  and 
sorest  wound  to  the  national  pride  of  England,  and  still  further 
exasperated  the  hatred  and  contempt  which  his  majesty's  English 
regiments  had  begun  to  feel  for  their  royal  master. 

Tyrconnel,  during  the  eventful  summer  months  when  the  revo 
lution  was  ripening  both  in  Holland  and  England,  had  taken, 
unknown  even  to  James,  a  step  of  the  gravest  importance.  To 
him  the  first  intelligence  of  the  preparations  of  "William  were 
carried  by  a  ship  from  Amsterdam,  and  by  him  they  were  com- 
municated to  the  infatuated  king,  who  had  laughed  at  them  as  too 
absurd  for  serious  consideration.  But  the  Irish  ruler,  fully  be- 
lieving his  informants,  and  never  deficient  in  audacity,  had  at 
once  entered  into  a  secret  treaty  with  Louis  XIV.  to  put  Ireland 
under  the  protection  of  France,  in  the  event  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange  succeeding  to  the  British  throne.  No  proposition  cowld 
more  entirely  suit  the  exigencies  of  Louis,  of  whom  William  was 
by  far  the  ablest  and  most  relentless  enemy.  The  correspondence 
which  has  come  to  light  in  recent  times,  shows  the  importance 
which  he  attached  to  Tyrconnel's  proposition — an  importance 
still  further  enhanced  by  the  direct  but  unsuccessful  overture 
made  to  the  earl  by  William  himself,  on  landing  in  England,  and 
before  embarking  in  the  actual  invasion  of  Ireland. 

William  Henry,  Prince  of  Orange,  now  about  to  enter  on  the 
scene,  was  in  1688  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  Fear- 
less of  danger,  patient,  silent,  impervious  to  his  enemies,  rather 
•  soldier  than  a  statesman,  indifferent  in  religion,  and  personally 
adverse  to  pereection  for  conscience  sake,  his  great  and  almost 
his  only  public  passion  was  the  humiliation  of  France  through 
the  instrumentality  of  a  European  coalition.  As  an  anti-Gallican, 
as  the  representative  of  the  most  illustrious  Protestant  family  in 
Euroje,  as  allied  by  blood  and  marriage  to  their  kings,  ha  was  » 


072  POPULAR   HIBTORT    OT   IBKLA1T*. 

very  fit  and  proper  chief  for  the  English  revolutionists ;  but  for 
the  two  former  of  these  reasons  he  was  just  as  naturally  antipa 
Jietic  to  the  Catholic  and  Celtic  majority  of  the  Irish.  Hli 
designs  Kad  been  long  gradually  maturing,  when  James's  incredible 
imprudence  hastened  his  movements.  Twenty-four  ships  of  war 
were  assembled  at  Helvoetsluys ;  7,000  sailors  were  put  on  board ; 
all  the  veterans  of  the  Netherlands  were  encamped  at  Ninieguen, 
where  0,000  recruits  were  added  to  their  numbers.  On  the  5th 
of  November,  the  anniversary  of  the  gunpowder  plot,  "  the  De- 
liverer," as  he  was  fondly  called  in  England,  landed  at  Tbrbay; 
on  the  26th  of  December,  James,  deserted  by  his  nobles,  his  army, 
and  even  his  own  unnatural  children,  arrived,  a  fugitive  and  a 
suppliant,  at  the  court  of  France. 

A  few  Irish  incidents  of  this  critical  moment  deserve  mention. 
The  mania  against  everything  Irish  took  in  England  forms  the 
most  ludicrous  and  absurd.  Whartou's  doggrel  refrain  of  Lilli- 
bullero,  was  heard  in  every  circle  outside  the  court;  all  London, 
lighted  with  torches,  and  marshalled  under  arms,  awaited  during 
the  memorable  "  Irish  night "  the  advent  of  the  terrible  and  de- 
tested regiments  brought  over  by  Tyrcoimel ;  some  companies  of 
these  troops  quartered  in  the  country  were  fallen  upon  by  tea 
times  their  number  and  cut  to  pieces.  Others,  fighting  and  in- 
quiring  their  way,  forced  a  passage  to  Chester  or  Bristol,  and 
obtained  a  passage  hou.e.  They  passed  at  sea,  or  encountered  on 
the  landing-places,  multitudes  of  the  Protestant  Irish,  men,  women 
and  children,  flying  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction.  Tyrconnel 
WUH  known  to  meditate  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Settlement ;  the 
general  rumor  of  a  Protestant  massacre  fixed  for  the  9th  of  De- 
cember, originated  no  one  knew  how,  was  spread  about  no  one 
knew  by  whom.  In  vain  the  Lord  Deputy  tried  to  stay  the 
panic — his  assurance  of  protection  and  the  still  better  evidence 
of  their  own  experience,  which  proved  the  Irish  Catholics  inca- 
j>«hlc  01  such  a  project,  could  not  allay  their  terrors.  They 
rushed  into  England  by  every  port,  and  inflamed  still  more  the 
hostility  which  already  prevailed  against  King  James. 

In  Ulster,  David  Cairnes,  of  Knockmany,  the  Rev.  John  Kelao, 
of  Ennislnllen,  a  Presbyterian,  and  Rev  George  Walker,  of  Donagh- 
pK>re,  ta\  Anglican  minister,  were  active  instruments  of  the  Prinof 


FOPULA'R    HISTORY    OF    IRKLAND.  BTl 

of  Orange.  On  the  7th  of  December  the  gates  of  D^rry  were  shut 
by  "  the  youthhood ''  egainst  the  Earl  of  Antrim  and  his  High- 
landers. Enniskillen  was  seized  by  a  similar  impulse  of  the  popu- 
lar will,  and  an  association  was  quickly  formed  throughout  Ulster 
ji  imitation  of  the  English  association  which  had  invited  over 
William,  under  the  auspices  of  Lord  Blaney,  Sir  Arthur  Raw- 
don,  Sir  Clotworthy  Skeffington,  and  others,  "for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Protestant  religion  and  the  dependancy  of  Ireland 
upon  England."  By  these  associates,  Sligo,  Coleraine,  and  the 
fort  of  Culmore,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Foyle,  were  seized  for  King 
William.  While  the  Town  Council  of  Derry,  in  order  to  gain 
time,  despatched  one  ambassador  with  one  set  of  instructions  to 
Tyrconnell,  and  another,  with  a  very  different  set,  to  "  the  Com. 
mittee  for  Irish  Affairs,"  which  sat  at  Whitehall,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury. 


CHAPTER  V. 

KINO  JAMES  IN   IRKLAND. — IRISH   PARLIAMENT   OF    1689. 

A  FEW  DATS  after  his  arrival  in  France,  James  despatched  a 
messenger  to  Tyrconnell,  with  instructions  expressing  great 
anxiety  as  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  Ireland.  "  I  am  sure,"  wrote 
the  fugitive  monarch,  "  you  will  hold  crat  to  the  utmost  of  your 
power,  and  I  hope  this  king  will  so  press  the  Hollanders,  that 
the  Prince  of  Orange  will  not  have  men  to  spare  to  attack  you." 
All  the  aid  he  could  obtain  from  Louis  at  the  moment  was  7,000 
or  8,000  muskets,  which  were  sent  accordingly. 

Events  succeeded  each  other  during  the  first  half  of  the  year 
1689  with  revolutionary  rapidity.  The  con  mentions  of  England 
and  Scotland,  though  far  from  being  unanimous,  declared  by  im- 
mense majorities,  that  James  had  abdicted,  and  that  William  and 
Mary  should  be  offered  the  crowns  of  both  kingdoms.  In  February 
th«y  were  proclaimed  as  king  and  queen  of  "  England,  Franc*, 


374  POPULAR   HMTORY   OF 

ai.<i  Ireland,"  and  in  May,  the  Scottish  commissioners  brought 
them  the  tender  of  the  crown  of  Scotland.  The  double  heritage 
of  the  Stuart  kings  was  thus,  after  nearly  a  century  of  pos- 
session, transferred  by  election  to  a  kindred  prince,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  direct  dependents  of  the  great  champion  of  "  the 
right  divine,"  who  first  united  under  his  scepter  the  three  .king- 
doms. 

James,  at  the  Court  of  France,  was  duly  informed  of  all  that 
passed  at  London  and  Edinburgh.  He  knew  that  he  had  power- 
ful partisans  in  both  conventions.  The  first  fever  of  popular  ex- 
citement once  allayed,  he  marked  with  exultation  the  symptoms 
of  reaction.  There  was  much  in  the  circumstances  attending  his 
flight  to  awaken  popular  sympathy  and  to  cast  a  veil  over  his 
errors.  The  pathetic  picture  drawn  of  parental  suffering  by  the 
great  dramatist  in  the  character  of  King  Lear,  seemed  realized 
to  the  life  in  the  person  of  King  James.  Message  followed  mes- 
sage from  the  three  kingdoms,  urging  him  to  return  and  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  faithful  subjects  in  a  war  against  the 
usurper.  The  French  king  approved  of  these  recommendations, 
for  in  fighting  James's  battle  he  was  fighting  his  own,  and  a 
squadron  was  prepared  at  Brest  to  carry  the  fugitive  back  to  his 
dominions.  Accompanied  by  his  natural  sons,  the  Duke  of  Ber- 
wick and  the  Grand  Prior  Fitzjames,  by  Lieutenant-Generals  de 
Rosen  and  de  Maumont,  Majors-General  de  Pusignan  and  de 
Lory  (or  Geraldine),  about  a  hundred  officers  of  all  ranks,  and 
1,200  veterans,  James  sailed  from  Brest,  with  a  fleet  of  83  ves- 
sels, and  landed  at  Kinsale  on  the  12th  day  of  March  (old  style). 
His  reception  by  the  Southern  population  was  enthusiastic  in  the 
extreme.  From  Kinsale  to  Cork,  from  Cork  to  Dublin,  his  pro- 
gress was  accompanied  by  Gaelic  songs  and  dances,  by  Latin  ora- 
tions, loyal  addresses,  and  all  the  decorationswith  which  a  popular 
favorite  can  be  welcomed.  Nothing  was  remembered  by  that 
easily  pacified  people  but  his  great  misfortunes  and  his  steady 
fidelity  to  his  and  their  religion.  Fifteen  chaplains,  nearly  all 
Irish  accompanied  him,  and  added  to  the  delight  of  the  popu- 
lace ;  while  many  a  long-absent  soldier,  now  came  back  in  the 
following  of  the  king,  to  bless  the  sight  of  some  aged  parent  or 
faithful  lc>v«r.  The  royal  entry  into  Dublin  WM  the  crowning 


POPULAR    HISTORY    C7    IRELAND.  575 

pageant  of  this  delusive  restoration.  With  the  tact  and  taste  fof 
Buch  demonstrations  hereditary  in  the  citizens,  the  trades  aad 
arts  were  marshalled  before  him.  Two  venerable  harpers  played 
on  their  national  instruments  near  the  gate  by  which  he  entered; 
a  number  of  religious  in  their  robes,  with  a  huge  cross  at  their 
head,  chanted  as  they  went ;  forty  young  girls  dressed  in  white, 
danced  the  ancient  Rinka,  scattering  flowers  as  they  danced. 
The  Earl  of  Tyrconnell,  lately  raised  to  a  dukedom,  the  judges, 
the  mayor  and  corporation,  completed  the  procession,  which 
marched  over  newly  sanded  streets,  beneath  arc-hes  of  ever- 
greens and  windows  hung  with  "  tapestry  and  cloth  of  Arras." 
Arrived  at  the  castle  the  sword  of  state  was  presented  to  him 
by  the  deputy,  and  the  keys  of  the  city  by  the  recorder.  At 
the  inner  entrance,  the  primate,  Dr.  Dominick  Macguire,  waited 
in  his  robes  to  conduct  him  to  the  chapel,  lately  erected  by  Tyr- 
connell, where  Te  Dciun  was  solemnly  sung.  !Er-t  of  all  the 
incidents  of  that  striking  ceremonial,  nothing  more  ^xmerfully 
impressed  the  popular  imagination  than  the  green  flag  floating 
from  the  main  tower  of  the  castle,  bearing  the  significant  inscrip- 
tion— "  Now  or  Never — Now  and  Forever." 

A  fortnight  was  devoted  by  James  in  Dublin  to  daUy  and 
nightly  councils  and  receptions.  The  chief  advisers  who  formed 
his  court  were  the  Count  d'Ayaux,  Ambassador  of  France,  the 
Earl  of  Melfovt,  principal  Secretary  of  State,  the  Duke  of  Tyr- 
connell, Lieutenant-General  Lord  MountcasheL,  Chief  Justice  Nu- 
gent, and  the  superior  officers  of  the  army,  French  and  Irish, 
One  of  the  first  things  resolved  upon  at  Dublin  was  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  gallant  Viscount  Dundee  as  Lieutenant-General  in  Scot- 
land— and  the  despatch  to  his  assistance  of  an  Irish  auxiliary  force 
which  served  under  that  renowned  chief  with  as  much  honor  as 
their  predecessors  had  served  under  Montrose.  Communicationa 
were  also  opened  through  the  Bishop  of  Chester  with  the  west 
of  England  Jacobites,  always  numerous  in  Cheshire,  Shropshire, 
and  other  counties  nearest  to  Ireland.  Certain  changes  were 
then  made  in  the  Privy  Council ;  Chief  Justice  Keating's  attend- 
ance was  dispensed  with  as  one  opposed  to  the  new  policy,  but 
his  judicial  functions  were  left  untouched.  Dr.  Cartwright» 
Bishop  of  Chester,  and  the  French  Ambassador  were  sworn  la, 


570  POPULAR   BISTORT    Of   IRILAKI*. 

and  writs  were  issued  convoking  the  Irish  Parliament  for  the  7th 
day  of  May  following. 

Intermitting,  for  the  present,  the  military  events  which  marked 
the  early  months  of  the  year,  we  will  follow  the  acts  and  deliber- 
ations of  King  James's  parliament  of  1689.  The  houses  met, 
according  to  summons,  at  the  appointed  time,  in  the  building 
known  as  "the  Inns  of  Court,"  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
castle.  There  were  present  228  Commoners,  and  46  members 
of  the  Upper  House.  In  the  Lords,  several  Protestant  noblemen 
and  prelates  took  their  seats,  and  some  Catholic  peers  of  ancient 
date,  whose  attainders  had  been  reversed,  were  seen  for  the  first 
time  in  that  generation  in  the  front  rank  of  their  order.  In  the 
lower  house  the  University  and  a  few  other  constituencies  were 
represented  by  Protestants,  but  the  overwhelming  majority  were 
Catholics,  either  of  Norman  or  Milesian  origin.  The  Iring  made 
a  judicious  opening  speech,  declaring  his  intention  to  uphold  the 
rights  of  property,  and  to  establish  liberty  of  conscience  alike  for 
Protestant  and  Catholic.  He  referred  to  the  distressed  state  of 
trade  and  manufactures,  and  recommended  to  the  attention  of  the 
houses  those  who  had  been  unjustly  deprived  of  their  estates 
under  the  "  Act  of  Settlement." 

Three  measures  passed  by  this  Parliament  entitle  its  members 
to  be  enrolled  among  the  chief  assertors  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  One  was  the  "  Act  for  establishing  Liberty  of  Conscience," 
followed  by  the  supplemental  act,  that  all  persons  should  pay 
tithes  only  tc  the  clergy  of  their  own  communion.  An  act  abol- 
ishing writs  of  error  and  appeal  into  England,  established  the 
judicial  independance  of  Ireland;  but  a  still  more  necessary 
measure  repealing  Poyning's  La\v,  was  defeated  through  the  per- 
•onal  hostility  of  the  king.  An  act  repealing  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment was  al»o  passed,  under  protest  from  the  Protestant  lords, 
and  received  the  royal  sanction.  A  bill  to  establish  Inns  of 
Court,  for  the  education  of  Irish  law  students,  was,  however, 
rejected  by  the  king,  and  lost;  an  "  Act  of  Attainder,"  against 
persons  in  arms  against  the  sovereign,  whose  estates  lay  in  Ire- 
land, was  adopted.  Whatever  may  be  the  bias  of  historians,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  this  Parliament  showed  a  spirit  worthy  of 
the  representatives  of  a  free  people.  "Though  Papists," 


POPULAR    HIBTORT    OF    IRELAND.  5 

Mr.  Grattan,  our  highest  parliamentary  authority,  "  they  wer« 
not  slaves ;  they  wrung  a  constitution  from  King  James  before 
they  accompanied  him  to  the  field." 

The  king,  unfortunately,  had  not  abandoned  the  arbitrary 
principles  of  his  family,  even  in  his  worst  adversity.  His  inter 
ference  with  the  discussions  on  Poyning's  Law,  and  the  Inns  of 
Court  bill,  had  shocked  some  of  his  most  devoted  adherents.  But 
he  proceeded  from  obstructive  to  active  despotism.  He  doubled, 
by  his  mere  proclamation,  the  enormous  subsidy  of  £20,0^ 
monthly  voted  him  by  the  Houses.  He  established  by  the  same 
authority  a  bank,  and  decreed  in  his  own  name  a  bank-restriction 
act.  He  debased  the  coinage,  and  established  a  fixed  scale  of 
prices  to  be  observed  by  all  merchants  and  traders.  In  one 
respect — but  in  one  only — he  grossly  violated  his  own  professed 
purpose  of  establishing  liberty  of  conscience,  by  endeavoring  to 
force  fellows  and  scholars  on  the  University  of  Dublin  contrary 
to  its  statutes.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  appoint  a  provost  and 
librarian  without  consent  of  the  senate.  However  we  may  con- 
demn  the  exclusiveness  of  the  college,  this  was  not  the  way  to 
correct  it ;  bigotry  on  the  one  hand  will  not  justify  despotism  on 
the  other. 

More  justifiable  was  the  interference  of  the  king  for  the  resto- 
ration of  rural  schools  and  churches,  and  the  decent  maintenance 
of  the  clergy  and  bishops.  His  appointments  to  the  bench  were 
also,  with  one  or  two  ezceptious,  men  of  tSie  very  highest  charac- 
ter. "The  administration  of  justice  during  this  brief  period," 
jays  Dr.  Cooke  Taylor,  "  deserves  the  highest  praise.  With  the 
axeeption  of  Nugent  and  Fitton,  the  Irish  judges  would  hare  been 
an  honor  to  any  bench." 


67S  POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

«U  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR.— CAMPAIGN   OF    1689. — SIEGES   OF    DK&lf 
AND     EXMSKLLLEX. 

WHEN  Tyrconnell  met  the  king  at  Cork,  he  gave  his  majesty 
a  plain  account  of  the  posture  of  military  affairs.  In  Ulster, 
Lieutenant-General  Richard  Hamilton,  at  the  head  of  2,500  regu- 
lar troops,  was  holding  the  rebels  in  check,  from  Charlemont  to 
Coleraine  ;  in  Munster,  Lieutenaut-General  Justin  McCarthy,  Lord 
Monntcashel,  had  token  Bandon  and  Castiemartyr ;  throughout 
the  four  provinces,  the  Catholics,  to  the  number  of  fifty  regiments 
(probably  30,000  men),  had  volunteered  their  services ;  but  for  all 
these  volunteers  he  had  only  20,000  old  arms  of  all  kinds,  not 
over  1,000  of  which  were  found  really  valuable.  There  were 
besides  these,  regiments  of  horse,  TyrconnelTs,  Russell's,  and  Gal- 
moy's,  and  one  of  dragoons,  eight  small  pieces  of  artillery,  but 
neither  stores  in  the  magazines,  nor  cash  in  the  chest  While  at 
Cork,  Tyrconnell,  in  return  for  his  great  exertions,  was  created 
a  duke,  and  general-in-chief,  with  De  Rosen  as  second  in  com- 
mand. 

A  week  before  James  reached  Dublin,  Hamilton  had  beaten  the 
rebels  at  Dromore,  and  driven  them  in  on  Coleraine,  from  before 
which  he  wrote  urgently  for  reinforcements.  On  receipt  of  thia 
communication,  the  council  exhibited,  for  the  first  time,  those 
radical  differences  of  opinion,  amounting  almost  to  factions  oppo- 
sition, which  crippled  all  King  James's  movements  at  this  period. 
One  party  strenuously  urged  that  the  king  himself  should  miu«h 
northward  with  such  troops  as  could  be  spared ;  that  his  personal 
appearance  before  Derry,  would  immediately  occasion  the  surren- 
der of  that  city,  and  that  he  might,  in  a  few  weeks,  finish  in  per- 
son, the  campaign  of  Ulster.  Another,  at  whose  head  was 
Tyrconnell,  endeavored  to  dissuade  his  majesty  from  this  course, 
but  he  at  length  decided  in  favor  of  the  plan  of  Melfort  and  his 
friends.  Accordingly,  he  marched  out  of  Dublin,  amid  torrents  of 
A.pril  rain,  on  the  eighth  of  that  month,  intending  to  form  a  junction 
with  Hamilton,  at  Strabane,  and  thence  to  advance  to  Derry.  The 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IBKLAND.  579 

march  was  a  weary  one  through  a  couiitry  stripped  bare  of  jvery 
sign  of  life,  and  desolate  beyond  description.  A  week  was  spc  nt  be- 
tween Dublin  and  Omagh ;  at  Omagh  news  of  an  English  fleet 
on  the  Foyle,  caused  the  king  to  retrace  his  steps  hastily  to 
Charlemont.  At  Charlemont,  however,  intelligence  of  fresh  suc- 
cesses gained  by  Hamilton  and  De  Rosen,  at  Cladyford  and 
Strabane,  came  to  restore  his  confidence ;  he  instantly  set  for- 
ward despite  tho  tempestuous  weather,  and  the  almost  impassable 
roads,  and  on  the  eighteenth  reached  the  Irish  camp  at  Johns- 
town, within  four  or  five  miles  of  Derry. 

It  was  now  four  months  since  "  the  youthhood"  of  Derry  had 
shut  the  wr.^crgate  against  Lord  Antrim's  regiment,  and  established 
within  thc-ir  walls  a  strange  sort  of  government,  including 
eighteen  clergymen  and  the  town  democracy.  The  military  com- 
mand remained  with  Leiuteiiant-Colonel  Lundy,  of  Lord  Mount- 
joy's  regiment,  but  the  actual  government  of  the  town  was  vested 
first,  in  "  Governor "  Baker,  and  afterwards  in  the  Reverend 
George  Walker,  Rector  of  Donaghmore,  best  known  to  us  as  Gov- 
ernor Walker.  The  town  council  had  despatched  Mr.  Cairnes, 
and  subsequently  Captain  Hamilton,  founder  of  the  Abercorn 
peerage,  to  England  for  succor,  and  had  openly  proclaimed  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  as  King  and  Queen.  Defensive  works  were  added, 
where  necessary,  and  on  the  very  day  of  the  affair  of  Cladyford, 
480  barrels  of  gunpowder  were  landed  from  English  ships  and 
conveyed  within  the  walls. 

As  the  Royalist  forces  concentrated  towards  Derry,  the  chiefs 
of  the  Protestant  Association  fell  back  before  them,  each  bringing 
to  its  garrison  the  contribution  of  his  own  followers.  From  the 
valley  of  the  Bann,  over  the  rugged  summits  of  Carntogher,  from 
the  glens  of  Donegal,  and  the  western  sea  coast  round  to  Mayo, 
troops  of  the  fugitives  hurried  to  the  strong  town  of  the  London 
traders,  as  to  a  city  of  refuge.  Enniskillen  alone,  resolute  in  iti 
insular  situation,  and  in  a  courage  akin  to  that  which  actuated 
the  defenders  of  Derry,  stood  as  an  outpost  of  the  main  object  of 
attack,  and  delayed  the  junction  of  the  Royalists  under  Mount- 
cashel  with  those  under  Hamilton  and  De  Rosen.  Coleraine  was 
abandoned.  Captain  Murray,  the  commander  of  Culmore,  forced 
his  way  at  the  head  of  1,500  men  into  Derry,  contrary  to  th« 


580  POPULAR   HIBTOKY   OF  IBELASD. 

wishes  of  the  vacillating  and  suspected  Lundy,  and,  from  the  m* 
incut  of  his  arrival,  infused  his  own  determined  spirit  into  all  ranks 
of  the  inhabitants. 

Those  who  had  advised  King  James  to  present  himself  in  person 
before  the  Pro'  estant  stronghold,  had  not  acted  altogether  upon 
presumption.  It  is  certain  that  there  were  Jacobites,  even  in 
Derry.  Lundy,  the  governor,  either  despairing  of  its  defence,  or 
undecided  in  his  allegiance  between  James  and  William,  had 
opened  a  correspondence  with  Hamilton  and  De  Rosen.  But  the 
true  answer  of  the  brave  townsmen,  when  the  king  advanced  too 
near  their  walls,  was  a  cannon  shot  which  killed  one  of  his  staff, 
and  the  cry  of  "  No  Surrender  "  thundered  from  the  walls.  James, 
awakened  from  his  self-complacent  dream  by  this  unexpected  in- 
ception, returned  to  Dublin,  to  open  his  Parliament,  leaving 
General  Hamilton  to  continue  the  seige.  Colonel  Lundy,  dis- 
trusted, overruled,  and  menaced,  escaped  over  the  walls  by  night 
disguised  as  a  common  laborer,  and  the  party  of  Murray,  Baker, 
Walker,  and  Cairnes,  reigned  supreme. 

The  story  of  the  siege  of  Derry — of  the  heroic  constancy  of  its 
defender^ — of  the  atrocities  of  De  Rosen  and  Galmoy — the  clem- 
ency of  Maumont — the  forbearance  of  Hamilton — the  struggles 
fur  supremacy  among  its  magnates — the  turbulence  of  the  towns- 
folk— the  joyful  raising  of  the  siege — all  these  have  worthily  em- 
ployed some  of  the  most  eloquent  pens  in  our  language.  The 
relief  came  by  the  breaking  of  the  boom  across  the  harbor's 
mouth  on  the  last  day  of  July ;  the  bombardment  had  commenced 
on  the  21st  of  April ;  the  gates  had  been  shut  on  the  7th  of  De* 
cember.  The  actual  siege  had  lasted  above  three  months,  and  the 
blockade  about  three  weeks.  The  destruction  of  life  on  both  side* 
has  never  been  definitely  stated.  The  besieged  admit  a  loss  of 
4,<X)0  men  ;  the  besiegers  of  6,000.  The  want  of  siege  guns  it 
the  Jacobite  camp  is  admitted  by  both  parties,  but,  nevertheless, 
the  defence  of  the  place  well  deserres  to  be  celebrated,  as  it  has 
been  by  an  imperial  historian,  "  as  the  most  memorable  in  British 
annals." 

Scarcely  inferior  in  interest  and  importance  to  the  siege  of 
I)erry  was  the  spirited  defence  of  Enniskillen.  That  fine  old 
town,  once  the  seat  of  the  noble  family  of  Maguire,  is  natup 


POPCIAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  581 

ally  dyked  and  moated  round  about,  by  the  waters  of  Lough  Erne. 
In  December,  '88,  it  had  closed  its  gates,  and  barricaded  its  cause, 
ways  to  keep  out  a  Jacobite  garrison.  In  March,  on  Lord  Gal 
taoy*s  approach,  all  the  outlying  garrisons,  in  Fermanagh  and 
Cavan,  had  destroyed  their  posts,  and  gathered  into  Enniqkillen- 
The  cruel  and  faithless  Galmoy,  instead  of  inspiring  terror  into 
the  united  garrison,  only  increased  their  determination  to  die  in 
the  breach.  So  strong  in  position  and  numbers  did  they  find 
themselves,  with  the  absolute  command  of  the  lower  Lough  Erne 
to  bring  in  their  supplies,  that  in  April  they  sent  off  a  detachment 
to  the  relief  of  Derry,  and  in  the  months  of  May  and  June  made 
several  successful  forays  to  Ballincarrig,  Omagh,  and  Belturbet. 
In  July,  provided  with  a  fresh  supply  of  ammunition  from  the 
fleet  intended  for  the  relief  of  Derry,  they  beat  up  the  Duke  of 
Berwick's  quarters  at  Trellick,  but  were  repulsed  with  some  loss. 
The  duke  being  soon  after  recalled  to  join  De  Rosen,  the  siege  of 
Enniskillen  was  committed  to  Lord  Mountcashel,  under  whom  aa 
commander  of  the  cavalry  served  Count  Anthony  Hamilton,  au- 
thor of  the  witty  but  licentious  "  Memoirs  of  Grammont,"  and 
other  distinguished  officers.  Mountcashel's  whole  force  consisted 
of  three  regiments  of  foot,  two  of  dragoons,  and  some  horse  ;  but 
he  expected  to  be  joined  by  Colonel  Sarsfield,  from  Sligo,  and 
Berwick,  from  Derry.  The  besieged  had  drawn  four  regiments 
of  foot  from  Cavan  alone,  and  were  probably  twice  that  number 
in  all ;  and  they  had,  in  Colonels  "Wolseley  and  Berry,  able  and 
energetic  officers.  The  Enniskilleners  did  not  await  the  attack 
within  their  fortress.  At  Lisnaskea,  under  Berry,  they  repulsed 
the  advanced  guard  of  the  Jacobites  under  Anthony  Hamilton 
aad  the  same  day — the  day  of  the  relief  of  Derry — their  whole 
force  were  brought  into  action  with  Mountcashel's  at  Newtown- 
Butler.  To  the  cry  of  "  No  Popery,"  Wolsely  led  them  into  an 
action,  the  most  considerable  yet  fought.  The  raw  southern 
levies  on  the  Royalist  side,  were  routed  by  the  hardy  Enniskil- 
leners long  familiar  with  the  use  of  arms,  and  well  acquainted  with 
every  inch  of  the  ground ;  2,000  of  them  were  left  on  the  field ; 
400  prisoners  were  taken,  among  them  dangerously,  but  not 
mortally  wounded,  was  the  Lieutenant  General  himself. 

The  month  of  August  was  a  month  of  general  rejoicing  for  the 
49* 


582  POPULAR    HISrORY    OF   IRELAND. 

"Williamites  of  Ulster.  De  Rosen  and  Berwick  had  retreated 
from  Deny ;  Sarsfield  on  his  way  to  join  Mountcashel  fell  back 
to  Sligo  on  hearing  of  the  defeat  at  Newtown-Butler ;  Culraore, 
Coleraine,  and  Ballyshannon,  were  retaken  and  well  supplied , 
fugitives  returned  triumphantly  to  their  homes,  in  Cavan,  Frv 
managh,  Tyrone,  and  Armagh.  A  panic,  created  by  false  reports 
spread  among  his  troops  at  Sligo,  compelled  Sarsfield  to  fall  still 
further  back  to  Athlone.  Six  months  after  his  arrival,  with  the 
exception  of  the  forts  of  Charlemont  and  Carrickfergus,  King 
James  no  longer  possessed  a  garrison  in  that  province,  which  had 
been  bestowed  by  his  grandfather  upon  the  ancestors  of  those 
who  now  unanimously  rejected  and  resisted  him. 

The  fall  of  the  gallant  Dundee   in  the  battle  of  Killicrankie, 
five  days  before  the  relief  of  Derry,  freed  King  William  from 
immediate  anxiety  on  the  side  of  Scotland,  and  enabled  him  to 
concentrate  his  whole  disposable  force  on  Ireland.     On  the  13th 
of  August,  an  army  of  eighteen  regiments  of  foot  and  four  or  five 
of  horse,  under  the  Marshal  Duke  de  Schomberg,  with  Count 
Solmes  as  second  in  command,  sailed  into  Belfast  Lough,  and 
took  possession  of  the  town.     On  the  20th,  the  Marshal  opened  a 
fierce  cannonade  on  Carickfergus,  defended  by  Colonels  McCarthy 
More  and  Cormac  O'Neill,  while  the  fleet  bombarded  it  from  sea. 
After  eight  days'  Incessant  cannonade,  the  garrison  surrendered 
on  honorable  terms,  and  Schomberg  faced  southward  towards 
Dublin.    Brave,  and  long-experienced,  the  aged  duke  moved  ac- 
cording to  the  cautious  maxims  of  the  military  school  in  which 
he  had  been  educated.    Had  he  advanced  rapidly  on  the  capital, 
James  must  have  fallen  back,  as  De  Rosen  advised,  on  the  line  of 
the  Shannon;   but  O*Regan,  at   Charlemont,  and   Berwick,  at 
Newry,  seemed  to  him  obstacles  so  serious  that  nearly  a  month 
waa  wasted  in  advancing  from  Belfast  to  Dundalk,  where  be  en 
trenched  himself  in  September  and  went  into  winter  quarters. 
Hero  a  terrible  dysentery  broke  out  among  his  troops,  said  to 
have  been  introduced  by  some  soldiers  from  Derry,  and  so  de- 
structive were  its  ravages,  that  there  were  hardly  left  healthy  men 
enough  to  bury  the  dead.    Several  of,  the  French  Catholics  under 
bis  command,  also,  deserted  to  James,  who,  from  his  headquarters 
at  Drogheda,  offered  every  inducement  to  the  deserters.     Others 


POPULAR    BISTORT    07   IRELAND.  683 

disco\  ered  in  the  attempt  were  tried  and  hanged,  and  others  still, 
suspected  oi  a  similar  intent,  were  marched  down  to  Carlingford, 
and  shipped  for  England.  In  November,  James  returned  from 
Drogheda  to  Dublin,  much  elated  that  Duke  Schomberg,  whose 
fatal  camp  at  Dundalk  he  had  in  vain  attempted  to  raise,  had 
Hhruuk  from  meeting  him  in  the  field. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

TOT!    REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. — CAMPAIGN    OF     1690. — BATTLE    OT    THE 

BOYNB. ITS       CONSEQUENCES. THB       SIEGES       OF       AT1ILONE      AND 

LIMERICK. 

THE  armies  now  destined  to  combat  for  two  kings  on  Irish 
soil,  were  strongly  marked  by  those  distinctions  of  race  and  re- 
ligion which  add  bitterness  to  struggles  for  power,  while  they 
present  striking  contrasts  to  the  eye  of  the  painter  of  military  life 
and  manners.  King  James's  troops  were  chiefly  Celtic  and  Cath- 
olic. There  were  four  regiments  commanded  by  O'Neills,  two  by 
O'Briens,  two  by  O'Kellys,  one  each  by  McCarthy  More,  Maguire. 
O'More,  O'Donnell,  McMahon,  and  Magennis,  principally  re- 
cruited among  their  own  clansmen.  There  were  also  the  regi- 
ments of  Sarsfield,  Nugent,  De  Courcy,  Fitzgerald,  Grace,  and 
Burke,  chiefly  Celts,  in  the  rank  and  file.  On  the  other  hand, 
Schomberg  led  into  the  field  the  famous  blue  Dutch  and  white 
Dutch  regiments  ;  the  Huguenot  regiments  of  Schomberg,  La  Mil- 
linier,  Du  Cambon,  and  La  Callimotte ;  the  English  regimer  ta 
of  Lords  Devonshire,  Delamere,  Lovelace,  Sir  John  Lanier,  Col- 
onels Langston,  Villiers  and  others ;  the  Anglo-Irish  regiments 
of  Lords  Meath,  Rosconmon,  Kingston,  and  Drogheda ;  with  the 
Ulstermen,  under  Brigadier  Wolseley,  Colonels  Gustayus  Hamil- 
ton, Mitchelburne,  Loyd,  "White,  St.  Johns,  and  Tiffary.  Some 
Important  changes  had  taken  place  on  both  sides  during  the  win- 
ter months.  D*Avaux  and  De  Rosen  had  been  recalled  at  James's 
request ;  Mountcashel,  at  lie  head  of  the  first  Franco-Irish  brigade. 


684  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF  IRELAND. 

had  been  exchanged  for  6,000  French,  under  De  Lauzan,  who 
arrived  the  following  March  in  tbs  double  character  of  genera] 
and  ambassador.  The  report  that  William  was  to  command  in 
person  in  the  next  campaign,  was,  of  itself,  an  indication  preg 
nant  with  other  changes  to  the  minds  of  his  adherents. 

Their  abundant  supplies  of  military  stores  from  England, 
wafted  from  every  port  upon  the  channel,  where  James  had  not 
a  keel  afloat,  enabled  the  Williamite  army  to  take  the  initiative  in 
the  campaign  of  1690.  At  Cavan,  Brigadier  Wolseley  repulsed 
the  Duke  of  Berwick,  with  the  loss  of  200  men  and  Borne  valuable 
officers.  But  the  chief  incident  preceding  William's  arrival,  was 
the  siege  of  Charlemont.  This  siege,  which  commenced  apparently 
in  the  previous  autumn,  had  continued  during  several  months,  till 
the  garrison  were  literally  starved  out,  in  May.  The  famished 
survivors  were  kindly  treated,  by  order  of  Schomberg,  and  their 
gallant  and  eccentric  chief,  O'Regan,  was  knighted  by  the  king, 
for  his  persistent  resistance.  A  month  from  the  day  on  which 
Charlemont  fell  (June  14th),  William  landed  at  Carrickfergus, 
accompanied  by  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  the  Duke  of  Wur- 
temburg,  the  Prince  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  the  second  and  last 
Duke  of  Ormond,  Major  General  Mackay,  the  earls  of  Oxford, 
Portland,  Scarborough,  and  Manchester,  General  Douglas,  and 
other  distinguished  British  and  foreign  officers.  At  Belfast,  his 
first  headquarters,  he  ascertained  the  forces  at  his  disposal  to  be 
upwards  of  40,000  men,  composed  of  "  A  strange  medley  of  all 
nations" — Scandinavians,  Swiss,  Dutch,  Prussians,  Huguenot- 
French,  English,  Scotch,  "  Scotch-Irish,"  and  Anglo-Irish.  Per- 
haps the  most  extraordinary  element  in  that  strange  medley  waa 
the  Danish  contingent  of  horse  and  foot.  Irish  tradition  and 
Irish  prophecy  still  teemed  with  tales  of  terror  and  predictions 
of  evil  at  the  hands  of  the  Danes,  while  these  hardy  mercenaries 
observed  with  grim  satisfaction,  that  the  memory  of  their  fierce 
ancestors  had  not  become  extinct  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  gen- 
erations. At  the  Boyne,  and  at  Limerick,  they  could  not  conceal 
their  exultation  as  they  encamped  on  some  of  the  very  earthworks 
raised  by  men  of  their  race  seven  centuries  before,  and  it  must 
be  admitted  t)  ey  vindicated  theii  descent,  I  rt,h  by  their  couragt 
Mid  their  cruelty. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  585 

On  the  16th  of  June,  James,  informed  of  William's  arrival 
marched  northward  at  the  head  of  20,000  men,  French  arid  Irish, 
to  meet  him.  On  the  22d  James  was  at  Dundalk  and  William  at 
Newry ;  as  the  latter  advanced,  the  Jacobites  retired,  and  finally 
chose  their  ground  at  the  Boyne,  resolved  to  hazard  a  battle,  for 
the  preservation  of  Dublin,  and  the  safety  of  the  province  of 
Leinster. 

On  the  last  day  of  June,  the  hostile  forces  confronted  each 
other  at  the  Btyne.  The  gentle,  legendary  river,  wreathed  in  all 
the  glory  of  its  abundant  foilage,  was  startled  with  the  cannon- 
ade  from  the  northern  bank,  which  continued  through  the  long 
summer's  evening,  and  woke  the  early  echoes  of  the  morrow. 
William,  strong  in  his  veteran  ranks,  welcomed  the  battle ;  Jamea 
strong  in  his  defensive  position,  and  the  goodness  of  his  cause, 
awaited  it  with  confidence.  On  the  northern  bank  near  to  the 
ford  of  Oldbridge,  William  with  his  chief  officers,  breakfasting  on 
the  turf,  nearly  lost  his  life  from  a  sudden  discharge  of  cannon ; 
but  he  was  quickly  in  the  saddle,  at  all  points  reviewing  his 
army.  James,  on  the  hill  of  Donore,  looked  down  on  his  devoted 
defenders,  through  whose  ranks  rode  Tyrconnell,  lame  and  ill,  the 
youthful  Berwick,  the  adventurous  Lauzan,  and  the  beloved  Sare- 
field — everywhere  received  with  cordial  acclamations.  The 
battle  commenced  at  the  ford  of  Oidbridge,  between  Sir  NeU 
O'Neil,  and  the  younger  Schomberg ;  O'Neil  fell  mortally  wound 
ed,  and  the  ford  was  forced.  By  this  ford,  William  ordered  his 
center  to  advance  under  the  elder  Schomberg,  as  the  hour  of 
noon  approached,  while  he  himself  moved  with  the  left  across  the 
river,  nearer  to  Drogheda.  Lauzan,  with  Sarsfield's  horse,  dread- 
ing to  be  outflanked,  had  galloped  to  guard  the  bridge  of  Slane, 
five  miles  higher  up  the  stream,  where  alone  a  flank  movement 
was  possible.  The  battle  was  now  transferred  from  the  gunners 
to  the  swordsmen  and  pikemen — from  the  banks  to  the  fords  and 
borders  of  the  river.  William,  on  the  extreme  left,  swam  hii 
faorse  across,  in  imminent  danger ;  Schomberg  and  Callemotte  feU 
in  the  center,  mortally  wounded.  News  was  brought  to  William, 
that  Dr.  Walker — recently  appointed  to  the  see  of  Derry — had 
al-o  fallen.  "  What  brought  him  there  T  was  the  natural  com 
ment  of  the  soldier-prince.  After  seven  hours'  fighting  the  IrisJ 


686  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRKLAND. 

fell  back  on  Duleek,  in  good  order.  The  assailants  admitted  firi 
hundred  killed,  and  as  many  wounded ;  the  defenders  were  e*iJ 
to  have  lost  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  men — less  than 
at  Newtown-Butler.  The  carnage,  compared  with  some  great  bat- 
tles of  that  age,  was  inconsiderable,  but  the  political  consequences 
vrere  momentous.  The  next  day,  the  garrison  of  Drogheda,  one 
thousand  three  hundred  strong,  surrendered ;  in  another  week, 
William  was  in  Dublin,  and  James,  terrified  by  the  reports  wbifch 
had  reached  him,  was  en  route  for  France.  It  is  hardly  an  exag- 
geration to  say,  that  the  fate  of  Europe  was  decided  by  the  resnlt 
of  the  battle"  of  the  Boyne.  At  Paris,  at  the  Hague,  at  Vienna, 
at  Rome,  at  Madrid,  nothing  was  talked  of  but  the  great  victory 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  over  Louis  and  James.  It  is  one  of  the 
strangest  complications  of  history,  that  the  vanquished  Irish 
Catholics,  seem  to  have  been  never  once  thought  of,  by  Spain, 
Austria,  or  the  Pope.  In  the  greater  issues  of  the  European 
coalition  against  France,  their  interests,  and  their  very  existence, 
were  for  the  moment  forgotten. 

The  defeat  at  the  Boyne,  and  the  surrender  of  Dublin,  uncov- 
ered the  entire  province  of  Leinster.  Kilkenny,  Wexford,  Water- 
ford,  Duncannon,  Clonmel,  and  other  places  of  less  importance, 
surrendered  within  six  weeks.  The  line  of  the  Shannon  waa 
fallen  back  upon  by  the  Irish,  and  the  points  of  attack  and  defence 
were  now  shifted  to  Athlone  and  Limerick.  What  Enniskillen 
and  Derry  had  been,  in  the  previous  year,  to  the  Williamite  party 
In  the  north,  cities  of  refuge,  and  strongholds  of  hope,  these 
two  towns  upon  the  Shannon  had  now  become,  by  the  fortune 
of  war,  to  King  James's  adherents. 

On  the  17th  of  July,  General  Douglas  appeared  before  Athlone, 
and  summoned  it  to  surrender.  The  veteran  commandant,  Colonel 
Richard  Grace,  a  Confederate  of  1641,  having  destroyed  th« 
bridge,  and  the  suburbs  on  the  Leinster  side  of  the  Shannon,  re- 
plied by  discharging  his  pistol  over  the  head  of  the  drum- 
mer who  delivered  the  message.  Douglas  attempted  to  crow 
the  river  at  Lanesborough,  but  fourd  the  for<?  strongly  guarded 
by  one  of  Grace's  outposts ;  after  a  week's  ineffectual  bombard- 
ment, he  withdrew  from  before  Athlone,  and  proceeded  to  Llmer 
Ick,  ravaging  and  slaying  M  he  went 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  681 

Limerick  had  at  first  been  abandoned  by  the  French  under 
Lauzan,  as  utterly  indefensible.  That  gay  intriguer  desired 
nothing  so  much  as  to  follow  the  king  to  France,  while  Tyrcon- 
uell,  broken  down  with  physical  suffering  and  mental  anxiety, 
feebly  concurred  in  his  opinion.  They  accordingly  departed  for 
Galway,  leaving  the  cily  to  its  fate,  and,  happily  for  the  national 
reputation,  to  bolder  counsels  than  their  own.  De  Boisseleau  did 
not  underrate  the  character  of  the  Irish  levies,  who  had  retreated 
before  twice  their  numbers  at  the  Boyne ;  he  declared  himself 
willing  to  remain,  and  sustained  by  Sarsfield,  he  was  chosen  as 
commandant.  More  than  ten  thousand  foot  had  gathered  "  a&  if 
by  instinct "  to  that  city,  and  on  the  Clare  side  Sarsfield  still 
kept  together  his  cavalry,  at  whose  head  he  rode  to  Galway  and 
brought  back  Tyrconnell.  On  the  9th  of  August,  William,  confi- 
dent of  an  easy  victory,  appeared  before  the  town,  but  more  than 
twelve  months  were  to  elapse  before  all  his  power  could  reduce 
those  mouldering  walls,  which  the  fugitive  French  ambassador  had 
declared  "  might  be  taken  with  roasted  apples." 

An  exploit  planned  and  executed  by  Sarsfield  the  day  succeed- 
ing William's  arrival,  saved  the  city  for  another  year,  and  raised 
that  officer  to  the  highest  pitch  of  popularity.  Along  the  Chare 
side  of  the  Shannon,  under  cover  of  the  night,  he  galloped  as 
fast  as  horse  could  carry  him,  at  the  head  of  his  dragoons,  and 
crossed  the  river  at  Killaloe.  One  Manus  O'Brien,  a  Protestant 
of  Clare,  who  had  encountered  the  flying  horsemen,  and  learned 
enough  to  suspect  their  design,  hastened  to  William's  camp  with 
the  news,  but  he  was  at  first  laughed  at  for  his  pains.  William, 
however,  never  despising  any  precaution  in  war,  despatched  Sir 
John  Lanier  with  500  horse  to  protect  his  siege-train  then  seven 
miles  in  the  rear,  on  the  road  between  Limerick  and  CasheL 
Sarsfield,  however,  was  too  quick  for  Sir  John.  The  day  after  he 
bid  crossed  at  Killaloe  he  kept  his  men  perdu  in  the  hilly  country, 
bad  the  next  night  swooped  down  upon  the  convoy  in  charge  of 
the  siege-train,  who  were  quietly  sleeping  round  the  ruined  church 
of  Ballanedy.  The  sentinels  were  sabred  at  their  posts,  the 
guards,  half  dressed,  fled  in  terror  or  were  speedily  killed.  Th« 
gun-carriages  were  quickly  yoked,  and  drawn  together  to  a  conr 
venient  place,  where,  planted  in  pits  with  ammunition,  they  werej 


588  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 

with  two  exceptions,  su  jcessfully  blown  to  atoms.  Lanier  arrived 
within  view  of  the  terrific  scene  in  time  to  feol  its  stunning  effects. 
The  ground  for  miles  round  shook  as  from  an  earthquake ;  th« 
glare  and  roar  of  the  explosion  were  felt  in  William's  camp,  and 
through  the  beleagnred  city.  On  the  morrow,  all  was  known. 
Sarsfield  was  safely  back  in  his  old  encampment,  without  the  losa 
of  a  single  man ;  Limerick  was  in  an  uproar  of  delight,  while 
William's  army,  to  the  lowest  rank,  felt  the  depression  of  so  na- 
expected  a  blow.  A  week  later,  however,  the  provident  prince 
had  a  new  siege-train  of  thirty-six  guns  and  four  rnortars  brought 
up  from  Waterford,  pouring  red-hot  shot  on  the  devoted  city. 
Another  week— on  the  27th  of  August — a  gap  having  been  made 
in  the  walls  near  Saint  John's  gate,  a  storming  party  of  the  Eng- 
lish guards,  the  Anglo-Irish,  Prussians  and  Danes,  was  launched 
into  the  breach.  After  an  action  of  uncommon  fierceness  and 
determination  on  both  sides,  the  besiegers  retired  with  the  loss 
of  30  officers  and  800  men  killed,  and  1,200  wounded.  The  be- 
sieged admitted  400  killed — their  wounded  were  not  counted. 
Four  days  later,  William  abandoned  the  siege,  retreated  to  Water- 
ford,  and  embarked  for  England,  with  Prince  George  of  Denmark, 
the  Dukes  of  Wurtetuburg  and  Ormond,  and  others  of  his  prin- 
cipal adherents.  Tyrconnel,  laboring  with  the  illness  of  which 
he  ROOD  after  died,  took  advantage  of  the  honorable  pause  thus 
obtained,  to  proceed  on  his  interrupted  voyage  to  France,  accom- 
panied by  the  ambassador.  Before  leaving,  however,  the  young 
Duke  of  Berwick  was  named  in  his  stead  as  cominander-in-chief ; 
Fitton.Nagle  and  Plowden  as  Lords  Justices;  sixteen  "senators" 
were  to  form  a  sort  of  cabinet,  and  Sarsfield  to  be  second  in  mili- 
tary command.  His  enemies  declared  that  Tyrconnel  retired 
from  the  contest  because  bis  early  spirit  and  courage  had  failed 
him  ;  he  himself  asserted  that  hte  object  was  to  procure  sufficient 
mirrors  from  King  Louis,  to  give  a  decisive  issue  to  the  war. 
Ilis  subsequent  negotiations  at  Paris  proved  that  though  hi* 
bodily  In-all h  might  be  wretched,  his  ingenuity  and  readiness  of 
resource  had  not  deserted  him.  He  justified  himself  both  with 
James  and  Louis,  outwitted  Lauzan,  propitiated  Louvois,  di»- 
armed  the  prejudices  of  the  English  Jacobites,  and,  in  short, 
placed  the  military  relations  of  France  and  Ireland  on  a  footing 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  589 

they  had  never  hitherto  sustained.  The  expedition  of  the  follow- 
Ing  spring,  under  command  of  Marsha/  Saint  Ruth  was  mainly 
procured  by  his  able  diplomacy,  and  though  he  returned  to  Ire 
land  to  survive  but  a  few  weeks  the  disastrous  day  of  Aughrim 
it  is  impossible  from  the  Irish  point  of  view,  not  to  recall  with 
admiration,  mixed  indeed  with  alloy,  but  still  with  largely  prevail- 
ing admiration,  the  extraordinary  energy,  buoyancy  and  talents 
»f  Richard,  Duke  of  TyrconneL 


CHAPTER  VHL 

THE  WINTER   OF   1690-01. 

THE  Jacobite  party  in  England  were  not  slow  to  exaggerate 
tfie  extent  of  William's  losses  before  Athlone  and  Limerick.  The 
national  susceptibility  was  consoled  by  the  ready  reflection,  that 
if  the  beaten  troops  were  partly  English,  the  commanders  were 
mainly  foreigners.  A  native  hero  was  needed,  and  was  found  in 
the  person  of  Marlborough,  a  captain,  whose  name  was  destined 
to  eclipse  every  other  English  reputation  of  that  age.  At  his 
suggestion  an  expedition  was  fitted  out  against  Cork,  Kinsale, 
and  other  ports  of  the  south  of  Ireland,  and  the  command, 
though  not  without  some  secret  unwillingness  on  William's  part, 
committed  to  him.  On  the  23d  of  September,  at  the  head  of 
8  000  fresh  troops,  amply  supplied  with  all  necessary  munitions, 
Marlborough  assaulted  Cork.  After  five  days'  bombardment,  in 
which  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  and  other  officers  and  men  were 
slain,  the  governor,  McEligot,  capitulated  on  conditions,  which, 
in  spite  of  all  Marlborough's  exertions,  were  flagrantly  violated 
The  old  town  of  Kinsale  was  at  once  abandoned  as  untenable  the 
same  day,  and  the  new  fort,  at  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  was 
surrendered  after  a  fortnight's  cannonade.  Covered  with  glory 
from  a  five  weeks'  campaign,  Marlborough  returned  to  England 
to  receive  the  acclamations  of  the  people  and  the  most  gracioaa 
compliments  of  the  prince. 
§0 


590  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

Berwick  and  Sarsfield  on  the  one  side  and  Ginkle  and  Lanier 
on  the  other,  kept  up  the  winter  campaign  till  an  advanced  period, 
on  both  banks  of  the  Shannon.  About  the  middle  of  September, 
the  former  made  a  dash  over  the  bridge  of  Banagher,  against 
Birr,  or  Parsonstown,  the  family  borough  of  the  famous  Undtr- 
tiiker.  The  English,  in  great  force,  under  Lanier,  Kirke,  «»atl 
Douglas,  hastened  to  its  relief,  and  the  Irish  fell  back  to  Ban*- 
glier.  To  destroy  "  that  convenient  pasa  "  became  now  the  ob- 
ject of  one  party,  to  protect  it,  of  the  other.  After  some  skir 
nashing  and  manoauvring  on  both  sides,  the  disputed  bridge 
was  left  in  Irish  possession,  and  the  English  fell  back  to  the 
borough  and  castle  of  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons.  During  the  siege 
of  the  new  fort  at  Kinsale,  Berwick  and  Sarsfield  advanced  aa 
far  as  Killmallock  to  its  relief,  but  finding  themselves  so  inferior 
in  numbers  to  Marlborough,  they  were  unwillingly  compelled  to 
leave  its  brave  defenders  to  their  fate. 

Although  the  Duke  of  Berwick  was  the  nominal  commander- 
in  chief,  his  youth,  and  the  distractions  incident  to  youth,  left 
the  more  mature  and  popular  Sarsfield  the  possession  of  real 
power,  both  civil  and  military.  Every  fortunate  accident  had 
combined  to  elevate  that  gallant  cavalry  officer  into  the  position 
of  national  leadership. 

He  was  the  son  of  a  member  of  the  Irish  Commons,  proscribed 
for  his  patriotism  and  religion  in  1641,  by  Anna  O'Moore,  daugh- 
ter of  the  organizer  of  the  Catholic  Confederation.  lie  was  t 
Catholic  in  religion,  spoke  Gaelic  as  easily  as  English,  was  brave 
impulsive,  handsome,  and  generous  to  a  fault,  like  the  men  lit) 
led.  In  Tyrconnell's  absence  every  sincere  lover  of  the  country 
c*me  to  him  with  intelligence,  and  looked  to  him  for  direction. 
Ear!y  in  November  he  learned  through  hie  patriotic  spies  the 
intention  of  the  Willinmites  to  force  the  passage  of  the  Shannon 
in  the  depth  of  winter.  On  the  lust  day  of  December,  accord- 
ingly, they  marched  in  great  force  under  Kirke  and  Lanier  to 
Jonesboro",  and  under  Douglas  to  Jamestown.  At  both  point* 
they  found  the  indefatigable  Sarsfield  fully  prepared  for  them, 
and  after  a  fortnight's  intense  suffering  from  exposure  to  the 
weather,  were  glad  to  get  back  again  to  their  snug  quarters  *t 
Parsonstown. 


POPULAR    BISTORT   OP   IRELAND.  5t  , 

Early  in  February  Tyrconnel  lauded  at  Limerick  with  a 
French  fleet,  escor'.ed  by  three  vessels  of  war,  aiid  laden  with 
p  ^visions,  but  bringing  few  arms  and  no  reinforcements.  Ha 
had  brought  over,  however,  14,000  golden  louis,  which  were 
found  of  the  utmost  service  in  re-clothing  the  army,  beside* 
10,000  more  which  he  had  deposited  at  Brest  to  purchase  oat- 
ineal  for  subsequent  shipment.  He  also  brought  promises  of 
military  assistance  on  a  scale  far  beyond  anything  France  had 
yet  afforded.  It  is  almost  needless  to  say  he  was  received  at 
Galway  and  Limerick  with  an  enthusiasm  which  silenced,  if  it 
did  not  confute,  his  political  enemies,  both  in  Ireland  and  France. 

During  his  absence  intrigues  and  factions  had  been  rifer  than 
ever  in  the  Jacobite  ranks.  Sarsfield  had  discovered  that  the 
English  movement  on  the  Shannon  in  December  was  partly 
hastened  by  foolish  or  treacherous  correspondence  among  hia 
own  associates.  Lord  Riverston  and  his  brother  were  removed 
from  the  Senate,  or  Council  of  Sixteen — four  from  each  province 
— and  Judge  Daly,  ancestor  of  the  Duusandle  family,  was  placed 
under  arrest  at  Galway.  The  youthful  Berwick  sometimes  com- 
plained that  he  was  tutored  and  overruled  by  Sarsfield ;  but 
though  the  impetuous  soldier  may  occasionally  have  forgotten  the 
lessons  learned  in  courts,  his  activity  seems  to  have  been  the 
greatest,  his  information  the  best,  his  advice  the  most  disinter- 
ested, and  his  fortitude  the  highest  of  any  member  of  the  coun- 
cil. By  the  time  of  Tyrconnell's  return  he  had  grown  to  a 
height  of  popularity  and  power,  which  could  not  well  brook  a 
superior  either  in  the  cabinet  or  the  camp. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  who  was  also  com- 
mander-in-chief,  the  ambition  of  Sarsfield  was  gratified  by  the 
rank  of  Earl  of  Lucan,  a  title  drawn  from  that  pleasant  hamlet, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Liffey,  where  he  had  learned  to  lisp  the 
catechism  of  a  patriot  at  the  knee  of  Anna  O'Moore.  But  hii 
real  power  was  much  diminished.  Tyrconnell,  Berwick,  Sif 
Richard  Nagle,  who  had  succeeded  the  Earl  of  Melfort  as  chief 
secretary  for  King  James,  all  ranked  before  him  at  the  board, 
and  when  Saint  Ruth  arrived  to  take  command-in-chief,  he  might 
fairly  have  complained  that  he  was  deprived  of  the  chief  rewaHl 
to  which  he  had  looked  forward. 


502  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

The  weary  winter  and  the  drenching  spring  months 
away,  and  the  Williamite  troops,  sorely  afflicted  by  disease,  hug- 
ged their  tents  and  huts.  Some  relief  was  sent  by  sea  to  the 
Jacobite  garrison  of  Sligo,  commanded  by  the  stout  old  Sit 
Teague  O'Regan,  the  former  defender  of  Charlemont.  Athlone, 
too,  received  some  succors,  and  the  line  of  the  Shannon  was  still 
unbroken  from  Slieve-an-iron  to  the  sea.  But  still  the  prormsed 
French  assistance  was  delayed.  Men  were  beginning  to  doubt 
both  King  Louis  and  King  James,  when,  at  length  at  the  begin- 
ning of  May,  the  French  ships  were  signaled  from  ,the  cliffs  of 
Kerry.  On  the  8th,  the  Sieur  de  Saint  Ruth  with  General* 
d'Usson  and  de  Tesse  landed  at  Limerick  and  assisted  at  a  solemn 
Te  Deum  in  St.  Mary's  Cathedral.  They  brought  considerable 
supplies  of  clothes,  provisions  and  ammunitions,  but  neither  veter- 
ans to  swell  the  ranks,  nor  money  to  replenish  the  chest  Saint 
Ruth  entered  eagerly  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  general- 
isairao,  while  Sursfield  continued  the  nominal  second  in  com- 
mand. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. CAMPAIGN   OF    1691. — BATTLE   OF 

AllOIIKIM. CAPITULATION    OF    LIMERICK. 

SAINT  RUTH,  with  absolute  powers,  found  himself  placed  at  the 
head  of  from  20,000  to  25,000  men,  in  the  field  or  in  garrison, 
regular  or  irregular,  but  all,  with  hardly  an  exception,  Irish.  His 
and  Tyrconnel's  recent  supplies  had  sufficed  to  renew  the  clothing 
and  equipment  of  the  greater  part  of  the  number,  but  the  whole 
contents  of  the  army  chefit,  the  golden  hinge  on  which  war  moves, 
was  estimated  in  the  beginning  of  May  to  afford  to  each  soldiev 
only  "  a  penny  a  day  for  three  weeks."  He  had  under  him  some 
of  the  best  officers  that  France  could  spare,  or  Ireland  produce, 
and  tie  had  with  him  the  hearts  of  nine  tenths  of  the  natives  of 
the  country. 

A  singular  illustration  of  the  popular  feeling  occurred  the  prt 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   HUJLAKD.  593 

rious  August.  The  Milesian  Irish  had  cherished  the  belief  eyer 
»ince  the  disastrous  day  of  Kinsale,  that  an  O'Donnell  from  Spain, 
having  on  his  shoulder  a  red  mark  (ball  dcry\  would  return  to 
free  them  from  the  English  yoke,  in  a  great  battle  near  Limerick. 
Accordingly,  when  a  representative  of  the  Spanish  O'Donnell* 
actually  appeared  at  Limerick,  bearing  as  we  know  many  of  ht 
family  have  done,  even  to  our  day,  the  umnistakeable  red  mark  of 
the  ancient  Tyrconnell  line,  immense  numbers  of  the  country 
people  who  had  held  aloof  from  the  Jacobite  cause,  obeyed  the 
voice  of  prophecy,  and  nocked  round  the  Celtic  deliverer.  From 
7,000  to  8,000  recruits  were  soon  at  his  disposal,  and  it  was  not 
without  bitter  indignation  that  the  chief,  so  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived, saw  regiment  after  regiment  drafted  from  among  his  fol- 
lowers, and  transferred  to  other  commanders.  Bred  up  a  SpanisL 
subject — the  third  in  descent  from  an  Irish  prince— it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  he  regarded  the  Irish  cause  as  all  in  all,  and  the 
interests  of  King  James  as  entirely  secondary.  He  could  hardly 
consider  himself  as  bound  in  allegiance  to  that  king  ;  he  was  in 
no  way  indebted  to  him  or  his  family,  and  if  we  learn  that  when 
the  war  grew  desperate,  but  before  it  was  ended,  he  had  entered 
into  a  separate  treaty  fir  himself  and  his  adherents,  with  Wil- 
liam's generals,  we  must  remember,  before  we  condemn  him,  that 
we  are  speaking  of  an  Hiberno-Spaniard,  to  whom  the  house  of 
Stuart  was  no  more  Bared  than  the  house  of  Orange. 

The  Williamite  army  rendevouzed  at  Mullingar  towards  the 
end  of  May,  under  generals  de  Ginkle,  Talmash  and  Mackay. 
On  the  7th  of  June,  they  moved  in  the  direction  of  Athlone, 
18,000  strong,  "  the  ranks  one  blaze  of  scarlet,  and  the  artillery 
such  as  had  never  before  been  seen  in  Ireland."  The  capture  of 
Ballymore  Castle,  in  Westmeath,  detained  them  ten  days ;  on  the 
19th,  joined  by  the  Duke  of  WurtemVarg,  the  Prince  of  Hesse 
and  the  Count  of  Nassau,  with  7,000  foreign  mercenaries,  the 
whole  sat  down  before  the  English  town  of  Athlone,  which  Saint 
Ruth,  contrary  to  his  Irish  advisers,  resolved  to  defend.  In 
twenty-four  hours  those  exposed  outworks,  abandoned  by  the 
veteran  Grace  the  previous  year,  fell,  and  the  bombardment  of 
the  Irish  town  on  the  opposite  or  Connaught  bank,  commenced. 
For  ten  days— from  the  20th  to  the  30th  of  June— that  fearful  can.- 
50* 


594  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF  IRELAND. 

nonade  continued.  Storey,  the  Willisn  ate  chaplain,  to  whom  w« 
are  indebted  fo<  many  valuable  particulars  of  this  war,  states  that 
the  besiegers  fired  above  12,000  cannon  shot,  600  shells  and  many 
tons  of  stone,  into  the  place.  Fifty  tons  of  powder  were  burne  J 
in  the  bombardment.  The  castle,  an  imposing  but  lofty  and  an- 
tique structure,  windowed  as  much  for  a  residence  as  a  fortress, 
tumbled  into  ruins ;  the  bridge  was  broken  down  and  impassable ; 
the  town  a  heap  of  rubbish,  where  two  men  could  no  longer  walk 
abreast.  But  the  Shannon  had  diminished  in  volume  as  the  sum- 
mer advanced,  and  three  Danes  employed  for  that  purpose  found 
a  ford  above  the  bridge,  and  at  six  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the 
last  day  of  June,  2,000  picked  men,  headed  by  Gustavus  Hamil- 
ton's grenadiers,  dashed  into  the  ford  at  the  stroke  of  a  bell.  At 
the  same  instant  all  the  English  batteries  on  the  Leinster  side 
opened  on  the  Irish  town,  wrapping  the  river  in  smoke,  and  dis- 
tracting the  attention  of  the  besiegers.  Saint  Ruth  was,  at  this 
critical  moment,  at  his  camp  two  miles  off,  and  D'TJsson,  the  com- 
mandant, was  also  absent  from  his  post.  In  half  an  hour  the 
Williamites  were  masters  of  the  heap  of  rubbish  which  had  once 
been  Athlone,  with  a  loss  of  less  than  fifty  men  killed  and  wound- 
ed. For  this  bold  and  successful  movement  De  Ginkle  was 
created  Earl  of  Athlone,  and  his  chief  officers  were  justly  en- 
nobled. Saint  Ruth,  over  confident,  in  a  strange  country,  with- 
drew to  Ballinasloe,  behind  the  river  Suck,  and  prepared  to  risk 
everything  on  the  hazard  of  a  pitched  battle. 

De  Ginkle  moved  slowly  from  Athlone  in  pursuit  of  his  enemy. 
On  the  morning  of  the  llth  of  July,  as  the  early  haze  lifted  itself 
in  wreaths  from  the  landscape,  he  found  himself  within  range  of 
the  Irish,  drawn  up,  north  and  south,  on  the  upland  of  Kilcom- 
modan  hill,  with  a  morass  on  either  flank,  through  which  ran 
two  narrow  causeways, — on  the  right,  "  the  pass  of  Urrachree," 
on  the  left,  the  causeway  leading  to  the  little  village  of  Aughrim. 
Saint  Ruth's  force  must  have  numbered  from  15,000  to  20,000 
men,  with  nine  field  pieces;  De  Ginkle  commanded  from  25,000  to 
80,000,  with  four  batteries — two  of  which  mounted  six  guns  each. 
During  the  entire  day,  attack  after  attack,  in  the  direction  of 
Urrachree  or  of  Aughrim  was  repulsed,  and  the  assailants  were 
about  to  retire  in  despair.  As  the  sun  sank  low,  a  last  desperaU 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  598 

attempt  was  made  with  equal  ill  success.  "  Now,  my  children," 
cried  the  elated  Saint  Ruth,  "  the  day  is  ours !  Now  I  shall  drive 
them  back  to  the  walls  of  Dublin  ! "  At  that  moment  he  fell  by 
a  cannon  shot  to  the  earth,  ami  stayed  the  advancing  tide  of  vic- 
tory. The  enemy  marked  the  check,  halted,  rallied  and  returned. 
Sarsfield,  who  had  not  been  entrusted  with  his  leader's  plan  of 
action,  was  unable  to  remedy  the  mischief  which  ensued.  Victory 
arrested  was  converted  into  defeat.  The  sun  went  down  on  An 
ghrim,  and  the  last  great  Irish  battle  between  the  Reformed  and 
Roman  religions.  Four  thousand  of  the  Catholics  were  killed 
and  wounded,  and  three  thousand  of  the  Protestants  littered  tb 
field.  Above  five  hundred  prisoners,  with  thirty-two  pairs  of 
colors,  eleven  standards  and  a  large  quantity  of  small  arms,  feU 
into  the  hands  of  the  victors.  One  portion  of  the  fugitive  survi- 
vors fled  to  Gal  way,  the  larger  part,  including  all  the  cavalry,  to 
Limerick. 

This  double  blow  at  Athlone  and  Aughrim  shook  to  pieces  the 
remaining  Catholic  power  in  Connaught.  Galway  surrendered 
ten  days  after  the  battle;  Balldearg  O'Donnell,  after  a  vain 
attempt  to  throw  himself  into  it  in  time,  made  terms  with  De 
Ginkle,  and  carried  his  two  regiments  into  Flanders  to  fight  on 
the  side  Spain  and  Rome  had  chosen  to  take  in  the  European 
coalition.  Sligo,  the  last  western  garrison,  succumbed,  and  the 
brave  Sir  Teige  O'Regan  marched  his  600  survivors  southward 
to  Limerick. 

Thus  once  more  all  eyes  and  all  hearts  in  the  British  Islands 
were  turned  towards  the  well-known  city  of  the  lower  Shannon. 
There,  on  the  14th  of  August,  Tyrconnell  expired,  stricken  down 
by  apoplexy.  On  the  25th,  de  Ginkle,  reinforced  by  all  the 
troops  he  could  gather  in  with  safety,  had  invested  the  place  on 
three  sides.  Sixty  guns,  none  of  less  than  12  pounds  calibre, 
opened  their  deadly  fire  against  it.  An  English  fleet  ascended 
the  river,  hurling  its  missiles  right  and  left.  On  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember the  garrison  made  an  unsuccessful  sally,  with  heavy  loss  ; 
on  the  10th,  a  breach,  forty  yards  wide,  was  made  in  the  wall 
overhanging  the  river;  on  the  night  of  the  15th,  through  the 
treachery  or  negligence  of  Brigadier  Clifford,  on  guard  at  the 
Clare  side  of  the  river,  a  pontocn  bridge  was  laid,  and  a  strong 


596  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 

English  division  crossed  over  in  utter  silence.  The  Irish  horse, 
which  had  hitherto  kept  open  communications  with  the  country 
on  that  side,  fell  back  to  Six  Mile  bridge.  On  the  24th  a  truce  ol 
three  days  was  agreed  upon,  and  on  the  3d  of  October  the  memo- 
rable "  Treaty  of  Limerick "  was  signed  by  the  Williamite  and 
Jacobite  commissioners. 

The  civil  articles  of  Limerick  will  be  mentioned  farther  on ; 
the  military  articles,  twenty-nine  in  number,  provided  that  all 
persons  willing  to  expatriate  themselves,  as  well  officers  and  sol- 
diers as  rapparees  and  volunteers,  should  have  free  liberty  to  do 
so,  to  any  place  beyond  seas,  except  England  and  Scotland ;  that 
they  might  depart  in  whole  bodies,  companies  or  parties;  that  if 
plundered  by  the  way,  William's  government  should  make  good 
their  loss ;  that  fifty  ships  of  200  tons  each  should  be  provided 
for  their  transportation,  besides  two  men-of-war  for  the  principal 
officers ;  that  the  garrison  of  Limerick  might  march  out  with  all 
their  arms,  guns  and  baggage,  "  colors  flying,  drums  beating  and 
matches  lighting  I "  It  was  also  agreed,  that  those  who  so  wished 
might  enter  the  service  of  William,  raining  their  rank  and  pay, 
but  though  De  Ginkle  was  most  eager  to  secure  for  his  master 
some  of  those  stalwart  battalions,  only  1,000  out  of  the  13,000 
that  marched  out  of  Limerick  filed  to  the  left  at  King's  Island. 
Two  thousand  others  accepted  passes  and  protections;  4,600 
sailed  with  Sarsfield  from  Cork,  4,700  with  D'Usson  and  De  Teas* 
embarked  in  the  Shannon  on  board  a  French  fleet  which  arrived 
a  week  too  late  to  prevent  the  capitulation ;  in  English  ships, 
3,000  embarked  with  General  Wauchop ;  all  which,  added  to 
Mountcaahel's  brigade  over  6,000  strong,  gave  an  Irish  army  of 
from  20,000  to  26,000  men  to  the  service  of  King  Louis. 

As  the  ships  from  Ireland  reached  Brest  and  the  ports  of  Brit 
tuny,  James  himself  came  down  from  Saint  Germain  to  receive 
th«m.  They  were  at  once  granted  the  rights  of  French  citizen 
chip  without  undergoing  the  forms  of  naturalization.  Many  of 
them  rose  to  eminent  positions  in  war  and  in  diplomacy,  became 
founders  of  distinguished  families,  or  dying  childless,  left  their 
Lard-won  gold  to  endow  free  bourses  at  Douay  and  Louvain,  for 
IXXT  I:5sh  scholars  destined  for  the  an  vice  of  the  church,  for 
which  thoy  had  fought  the  good  fight,  in  another  sense,  on  the 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  597 

Shannon  and  the  Boyne.  The  migration  of  ecclesiastics  wag 
almost  as  extensive  as  that  of  the  military.  They  were  shipped 
by  dozens  and  by  scores,  from  Dublin,  Cork  and  Galway.  I» 
seven  years  from  the  treaty,  there  remained  but  400  secular  and 
800  regular  clergy,  in  the  country.  Nearly  double  that  number, 
deported  by  threats  or  violence,  were  scattered  over  Europe, 
pensioners  on  the  princes  and  bishops  of  their  faith,  or  the  insti- 
tutions of  their  order.  In  Rome,  72,000  francs  annually  were 
allotted  for  the  maintenance  of  the  fugitive  Irish  clergy,  and  dur- 
ing the  first  three  months  of  1699,  three  remittances  from  the 
Holy  Father,  amounting  to  90,000  livres,  were  placed  In  the 
hands  of  the  Nuncio  at  Paris,  for  the  temporary  relief  of  the  fugi- 
tives in  France  and  Flanders.  It  may  also  be  added  here,  that 
till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  an  annual  charge  of  1,000 
Roman  crowns  was  borne  by  the  Papal  treasury  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  Catholic  Poor-schools  in  Ireland. 

The  revolutionary  war,  thus  closed,  had  cost  King  William,  or 
rather  the  people  of  England,  at  least  10,000,000  of  pounds  ster- 
ling, and  with  the  other  wars  of  that  reign,  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  English  national  debt.  As  to  the  loss  of  life,  the  William- 
ite  chaplain,  Storey,  places  it'  "  at  100,000,  young  and  old,  be- 
sides treble  the  number  that  are  ruined  and  undone."  The  chiei 
consolation  of  the  vanquished  in  that  struggle  was,  that  they  had 
wrung  even  from  their  adversaries  the  reputation  of  being  "  one 
of  the  most  warlike  of  nations " — that  they  "  buried  the  syna- 
gogue with  honor." 


CHAPTER  X. 

REIGN    OF   KINO   WILLIAM. 

FROM  the  date  of  the  treaty  of  Limerick,  William  was  acknow- 
ledged by  all  but  the  extreme  Jacobites,  at  least  de  facto — king 
of  Ireland.  The  prevailing  party  in  Ulster  had  long  recognized 
him,  and  the  only  expression  of  the  national  will  then  possible 
accepted  his  title,  in  the  treaty  signed  at  Limerick  on  the  3d  of 
0«tob«r,  1691 ,  For  three  years  Ireland  had  resisted  hie  power, 


698  POPULAR   BISTORT    07   IRELAND. 

for  twelve  years  locger  she  was  to  bear  the  joke  of  his  govern 
ment 

Though  the  history  of  William's  twelve  years'  reign  in  Ireland 
is  a  history  of  proscription,  the  king  himself  is  answerable  only 
as  a  consenting  party  to  such  proscription.  He  was  neither  by 
temper  nor  policy  a  persecutor ;  his  allies  were  Spain,  Austria 
and  Rome ;  he  had  thousands  of  Catholics  in  his  own  army,  and 
he  gave  his  confidence  as  freely  to  brave  and  capable  men  of  one 
creed  as  of  another.  But  the  oligarchy,  calling  itself  the  "  Pro- 
testant Ascendancy,"  which  had  grown  so  powerful  under  Crom- 
well and  Charles  II.,  backed  as  they  once  again  were  by  all  the 
religious  intolerance  of  England,  proved  too  strong  for  William's 
good  intentions.  He  was,  moreover,  pre-occupied  with  the  grand 
plans  of  the  European  coalition,  in  which  Ireland,  without  an 
army,  was  no  longer  an  element  of  calculation.  He  abandoned, 
therefore,  not  without  an  occasional  grumbling  protest,  the  van- 
pnished  Catholics  to  the  mercy  of  that  oligarchy,  whose  history 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  forms  so  prominent  a  feature  of 
the  history  of  the  kingdom. 

The  civil  articles  of  Limerick,  which  Sarsfield  vainly  hoped 
might  prove  the  Magna  C/tarta  of  his  coreligionists,  were  thirteen 
in  number.  Art.  I.  guaranteed  to  members  of  that  denomination, 
remaining  in  the  kingdom,  "  such  privileges  in  the  exercise  of  their 
religion  as  are  consistent  with  the  law  of  Ireland,  or  as  they  en- 
joyed in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  1L  ;"  this  article  further  pro- 
vided, that  "  their  majesties,  as  soon  as  their  affairs  will  permit 
them  to  summon  a  Parliament  in  this  kingdom,  will  endeavor  to 
procure  the  said  Roman  Catholics  such  further  security  in  that 
particular  as  may  preserve  them  from  any  disturbance  on  account 
of  their  said  religion."  Art  II.  guaranteed  pardon  and  protec- 
tion u>  all  who  had  served  King  James,  on  taking  the  oath  of 
allegiance  prescribed  in  Art.  IX.,  as  follows: 

'  I,  A.  B.,  do  solemnly  promise  and  swear  that  I  will  be  faith. 
ful  and  bear  true  allegiance  to  their  majesties,  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary  ;  so  help  me  God." 

Arts.  III.,  IV.,  V.  and  VI.  extended  the  provisions  of  Arts.  I. 
and  II.  to  merchants  and  other  classes  of  men.  Art  VII.  permit* 
*  every  nobleman  and  gentleman  compromised  in  the  said  articl° 


FOPULAB   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  b99 

to  carry  side  arms,  and  keep  "  a  gun  in  their  houses."  Art.  VIIL 
gives  the  right  of  removing  gooda  and  chattels  without  search. 
Art.  IX.  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  oath  to  be  administered  to  such  Roman  Catholics  as  uub- 
tnit  to  their  majesties'  government  shall  be  the  oath  aforesaid,  and 
no  other" 

Art.  X.  guarantees  that  "  no  person  or  persons  who  shall  at 
any  time  hereafter,  break  these  articles,  or  any  of  them,  shall 
thereby  make  or  cause  any  other  person  or  persons  to  forfeit  or 
lose  the  benefit  of  them."  Arts.  XI.  and  XII.  relate  to  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  articles  "  within  eight  months  or  sooner."  Art. 
XIII.  refers  to  the  debts  of  "  Colonel  John  Brown,  commissary 
of  the  Irish  army,  to  several  Protestants,"  and  arranges  for  their 
satisfaction. 

These  articles  were  signed,  before  Limerick,  at  the  well  known 
"  Treaty  Stone,"  on  the  Clare  side  of  the  Shannon,  by  Lord 
Scravenmore,  Generals  Mackay,  Talmash,  and  De  Ginkle,  and  the 
Lords-Justices  Porter  and  Coningsby,  for  King  William,  and  by 
Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lucan,  Viscount  Galmoy,  Sir  Toby  Butler,  and 
Colonels  Purcell,  Cusack,  Dillon,  and  Brown,  for  the  Irish.  On 
the  24th  of  February  following,  royal  letters  patent  confirmatory 
of  the  treaty  were  issued  from  Westminster,  in  the  name  of  the  king 
and  queen,  whereby  they  declared,  that  "  we  do  for  us,  our  heirs, 
and  successors,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  ratify  and  confirm  the  same 
and  every  clause,  matter,  and  thing  therein  contained.  And  as 
to  such  parts  thereof,  for  which  an  act  of  Parliament  shall  be 
found  to  be  necessary,  we  shall  recommend  the  same  to  be  made 
good  by  Parliament,  and  shall  give  our  royal  assent  to  any  bill 
or  bills  that  shall  be  passed  by  our  two  houses  of  Parliament  to 
that  purpose.  And  whereas  it  appears  unto  ns,  that  it  was  agreed 
between  the  parties  to  the  said  articles,  that  after  the  words  Lim- 
erick,  Clare,  Kerry,  Cork,  Mayo,  or  any  of  them,  in  the  second 
of  the  said  articles ;  which  words  having  been  casually  omitted 
by  the  writer  of  the  articles,  the  words  following,  viz. :  '  And  all 
such  as  are  under  their  protection  in  the  said  counties,'  should  be 
inserted,  and  be  part  of  the  said  omission,  was  not  discovered  till 
after  the  said  articles  were  signed,  but  was  taken  notice  of  before 
thp  secor-.d  town  was  surrendered,  and  that  our  said  justices  and 


600  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF  IRELAND. 

generals,  or  one  of  them,  did  promise  that  the  said  clause  should 
be  made  good,  it  being  within  the  intention  of  the  capitulation, 
and  inserted  in  the  foul  draft  thereof:  Our  further  will  and  pleas- 
ure is,  and  we  do  hereby  ratify  and  confirm  the  said  omitted 
words,  viz.,  '  And  all  such  as  are  under  their  protection  in  the 
Baid  counties,'  hereby,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  ordaining 
and  declaring  that  all  and  every  person  and  persons  therein  con- 
cerned shall  anfl  may  have,  receive,  and  enjoy  the  benefit  thereof, 
in  such  and  the  same  manner  as  if  the  said  words  had  been  in- 
serted in  their  proper  place  in  the  said  second  article,  any  omis- 
sion, defect,  or  mistake  in  the  said  second  article  in  any  wise  not- 
withstanding. Provided  always,  and  our  will  and  pleasure  is, 
that  these  our  letters  patent  shall  be  enrolled  in  our  court  of 
chancery,  in  our  said  kingdom  of  Ireland,  within  the  space  of  one 
year  next  ensuing." 

But  the  Ascendancy  party  were  not  to  be  restrained  by  the 
filth  of  treaties,  or  the  obligations  of  the  sovereign.  The  Sun- 
day following  the  return  of  the  Lords  Justices  from  Limerick, 
Dopping,  Bishop  of  Meath,  preached  before  them  at  Christ's  church, 
on  the  crime  of  keeping  faith  with  Papists.  The  grand  jury  of 
Cork,  urged  on  by  Cox,  the  Recorder  of  Kinsale,  one  of  the  his- 
torians of  those  times,  returned  in  their  inquest  that  the  restor- 
ation of  the  Earl  of  Clancarty's  estates  "  would  be  dangerous  to 
the  Protestant  interest."  Though  both  William  and  George  I., 
interested  themselves  warmly  for  that  noble  family,  the  hatred  01 
the  new  oligarchy  proved  too  strong  for  the  clemency  of  kings, 
and  the  broad  acres  of  the  disinherited  McCarthys,  remained  to 
enrich  an  alien  and  bigoted  aristocracy. 

In  1692,  when  the  Irish  Parliament  met,  a  few  Catholic  peers, 
and  a  very  few  Catholic  commoners  took  their  seats.  One  of  the 
first  acts  of  the  victorious  majority  was  to  frame  an  oath  in  dir- 
ect contravention  to  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  ninth  civil  article 
of  the  treaty,  to  be  taken  by  members  of  both  Houses.  This 
oath  solemnly  ai.'l  explicitly  denied  "  that  in  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  supper  there  is  any  transubstantion  of  the  elements ;" 
and  as  solemnly  affirmed,  "  that  the  invocation  or  adoration  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  or  any  other  saint,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass, 
as  they  are  now  used  in  the  church  of  Rome,  are  damnable  and 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  601 

idolatrous."  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  Catholic  peers  and  com 
moners  retired  from  both  Houses,  rather  than  take  any  such  oath, 
and  thus  the  Irish  Parliament  assumed,  in  1692,  that  exclusively 
Protestant  chsracter  which  it  continued  to  maintain,  till  its  ex- 
tinction in  1800.  The  Lord-Justice  Sydney,  acting  in  the  spirit 
of  his  original  instructions,  made  some  show  of  resistance  to  the 
proscriptive  spirit  thus  exhibited.  But  to  teach  him  how  they 
regarded  his  interference,  a  very  small  supply  was  voted,  and  the 
assertion  of  the  absolute  control  of  the  Commons  over  all  sup- 
plies— a  sound  doctrine  when  rightly  interpreted — was  vehem« 
ently  asserted.  Sydney  had  the  satisfaction  of  proroguing  and 
lecturing  the  House,  but  they  had  the  satisfaction  soon  after  of 
seeing  him  recalled  through  their  influence  in  England,  and  a 
more  congenial  viceroy  in  the  person  of  Lord  Capel  sent  over. 

About  the  same  tune,  that  ancient  engine  of  oppression,  a  Com- 
mission to  inquire  into  estates  forfeited,  was  established,  and,  in  a 
short  time,  decreed  that  1,060,792  acres  were  escheated  to  the 
crown.  This  was  almost  the  last  fragment  of  the  patrimony  of 
the  Catholic  inhabitants.  When  King  "William  died,  there  did 
not  remain  in  Catholic  hands  "  one-sixth  part "  of  what  their 
grandfathers  held,  even  after  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment. 

In  1695,  Lord  Capel  opened  the  second  Irish  Parliament,  sum- 
moned by  King  "William,  in  a  speech  in  which  he  assured  his 
delighted  auditors  that  the  king  was  intent  upon  a  firm  settlement 
of  Ireland  upon  a  Protestant  interest."  Large  supplies  were  at 
once  voted  to  his  majesty,  and  the  House  of  Commons  then  pro- 
ceeded to  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider  what  penal 
laws  were  already  in  force  against  the  Catholics,  not  for  the  pur. 
pose  of  repealing  them,  but  in  order  to  add  to  their  number. 
The  principal  penal  laws  then  in  existence  were : 

1.  An  act,  subjecting  all  who  upheld  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Se« 
of  Rome,  to  the  penalties  of  a  premunire  ;  and  ordering  the  oath 
of  supremacy  to  be  a  qualification  for  office  of  every  kind,  for  holy 
orders,  and  for  a  degree  in  the  university. 

2.  An  act  for  the  uniformity  of  Common  Prayer,  imposing  a 
fine  of  a  shilling  on  all  who  should  absent  themselves  from  placet 
of  worship  of  the  established  church  on  Sundays. 

51 


602  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

8.  An  act,  allowing  the  Chancellor  to  name  a  guardian  to  th« 
child  of  a  Catholic. 

4.  An  act  to  prevent  Catholics  from  becoming  private  tutors 
in  families,  without  license  from  the  ordinaries  of  their  several 
parishes,  and  taking  the  oath  of  supremacy. 

To  these,  the  new  Parliament  added,  1.  An  act  to  deprive 
Catholics  of  the  means  of  educating  their  children  at  home  or 
abroad,  and  to  render  them  incapable  of  being  guardians  of  their 
own  or  any  other  person's  children;  2.  An  act  to  disarm  the 
Catholics  ;  and,  3.  Another  to  banish  all  the  Catholic  priests  and 
prelates.  Having  thus  violated  the  treaty,  they  gravely  brought 
in  a  bill  "  to  confirm  the  Articles  of  Limerick."  "  The  very  title 
of  the  bill,"  says  Dr.  Cooke  Taylor,  "  contains  evidence  of  its  in- 
justice." It  is  styled,  "  A  Bill  for  the  Confirmation  of  Articles 
(not  t/ie  articles)  made  at  the  Surrender  of  Limerick."  And  the 
preamble  shows  that  the  little  word  the  was  not  accidentally 
omitted.  It  runs  thus  : — "  That  the  said  articles,  or  so  much  of 
them  at  may  consist  wiih  the  safety  and  welfare  of  your  majesty't 
tubjects  in  these  kingdoms,  may  be  confirmed,"  «fec.  The  parts  that 
appeared  to  these  legislators  inconsistent  with  "  the  safety  and 
•welfare  of  his  majesty's  subjects,"  were  the  first  article,  which 
provided  for  the  security  of  the  Catholics  from  all  disturbances 
on  account  of  their  religion ;  those  parts  of  the  second  article 
which  confirmed  the  Catholic  gentry  of  Limerick,  Clare,  Cork, 
Kerry,  and  Mayo,  in  the  possession  of  their  estates,  and  allowed 
all  Catholics  to  exercise  their  trades  and  professions  without  ob- 
struction ;  the  fourth  article,  which  extended  the  benefit  of  the 
peaoe  to  certait  Irish  officers  then  abroao ;  the  seventh  article, 
which  allowed  the  Catholic  gentry  to  ride  armed ;  the  ninth 
article,  which  provides  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  shall  be  the 
only  oath  required  from  Catholics ;  and  one  or  two  others  of 
Toinor  importance.  All  of  these  are  omitted  in  the  bill  for  "  The 
tonfirmation  of  Articles  made  at  the  Surrender  of  Limerick." 

The  Commons  passed  the  bill  without  much  difficulty.  The 
House  of  Lords,  however,  contained  some  few  of  the  ancient 
nobility,  and  some  prelates,  who  refused  to  acknowledge  the  dog- 
ma, "  that  no  faith  should  be  kept  with  Papists,"  as  an  article  cf 
their  creed.  The  bill  waa  strenuously  resisted,  and  wh«n  it  wac 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OP    IRELAND.  603 

At  length  carried,  a  strong  protest  against  it  was  signed  by  lordi 
Londonderry,  Tyrone,  and  Duncannon,  the  barons  of  Ossory, 
Limerick,  Killaloe,  Kerry,  Howth,  Kingston,  and  Strabane,  and, 
to  their  eternal  honor  be  it  said,  the  Protestant  bishops  of  Kildara 
Elphin,  Derry,  Clonfert,  and  Killala  1 

The  only  other  political  incidents  of  this  reign,  important  to 
Ireland,  were  the  speech  from  the  throne  in  answer  to  an  addresa 
of  the  English  Houses,  'in  which  William  promised  to  discourage 
the  woolen  and  encourage  the  linen  manufacture  in  Ireland,  and 
the  publication  of  the  famous  argument  for  legislative  independ- 
ance,  "  The  Case  of  Ireland  Stated."  The  author  of  this  tract, 
the  bright  precursor  of  the  glorious  succession  of  men,  who,  often 
defeated  or  abandoned  by  their  colleagues,  finally  triumphed  in 
1782,  was  William  Molyneux,  member  for  the  University  of 
Dublin.  Molyneux's  book  appeared  in  1698,  with  a  short, 
respectful,  but  manly  dedication  to  King  William.  Speaking  of 
his  own  motives  in  writing  it,  he  says,  "  I  am  not  at  all  concerned 
in  wool  or  the  wool  trade.  I  am  no  wnys  interested  in  forfeiturea 
or  grants.  I  am  not  at  all  concerned  whether  the  bishop  or  the 
society  of  Derry  recover  the  lands  they  contest  about."  Such 
were  the  domestic  politics  of  Ireland  at  that  day;  but  Moly- 
neux raised  other  and  nobler  issues  when  he  advanced  these 
six  propositions,  which  he  supported  with  incontestible  ability. 

"1.  How  Ireland  became  a  kingdom  annexed  to  the  crown 
of  England.  And  hers  we  shall  at  large  give  a  faithful  narrative 
of  the  first  expedition  of  the  Britons  into  this  country,  and  King 
Henry  II.'s  arrival  here,  such  as  our  best  historians  give  us. 

"  2.  We  shall  inquire  whether  this  expedition  and  the  English 
settlement  that  afterwards  follow«d  thereon,  can  properly  be 
called  a  conquest?  or  whether  any  victories  obtained  by  the  Eng- 
lish in  any  succeeding  ages  in  this  kingdom,  upon  any  rebellion, 
may  be  called  a  conquest  thereof  ? 

"  3.  Granting  that  it  were  a  conquest,  we  shall  inquire  what 
title  a  conquest  gives. 

"  4.  We  shall  inquire  what  concessions  have  been  from  time  to 
time  made  to  Ireland,  to  take  off  what  even  the  most  rigorous 
asserters  of  a  conquerer'a  title  do  pretend  to.  And  herein  wt 
•hall  show  by  what  degrees  th»  English  form  of  government, 


POPULAR    HISTORY    0>   IRELAND. 

and  tin   English  statute  laws,  came  to  be  received  among  as 
and  this  shall  appear  to  be  wholly  by  the  consent  of  the  people 
und  the  parliament  of  Ireland. 

"  5.  We  shall  inquire  into  the  precedents  and  opinions  of  the 
(earned  in  the  laws  relating  to  this  matter,  with  observations 
thereon. 

"  6.  We  shall  consider  the  reasons  and  arguments  that  may  be 
farther  offered  on  one  side  and  t'other;  and  we  shall  draw  some 
general  conclusions  from  the  whole." 

The  English  Parliament  took  alarm  at  these  bold  doctrines 
seldom  heard  across  the  channel  since  the  days  of  Patrick  Darcy 
and  the  Catholic  Confederacy.  They  ordered  the  book  to  be 
burned  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman  as  of  "  dangerous 
tendency  to  the  crown  and  people  of  England,  by  denying  the 
power  of  the  king  and  parliament  of  England  to  bind  the  king- 
dom and  people  of  Ireland,  and  the  subordination  and  depend- 
ence that  Ireland  had,  and  ought  to  have,  upon  England,  «a  being 
united  and  annexed  to  the  imperial  crown  of  England.'  They 
voted  an  address  to  the  king  in  the  same  tone,  and  received  an 
answer  from  his  majesty  assuring  them  that  he  would  enforce  the 
laws  securing  the  dependence  of  Ireland  on  the  imperial  crown 
of  Great  Britain. 

But  William's  days  were  already  numbered.  On  the  8th  of 
March,  1702,  when  little  more  than  fifty  years  of  age,  he  died 
from  the  effects  of  a  fall  from  his  horse.  His  reign  over  Ireland 
is  synonymous  to  the  minda  of  that  people  of  disaster,  proscrip- 
tion and  spoliation  ;  of  violated  faith  and  broken  compacts ;  but 
these  wrongs  were  lone  in  his  name  rather  than  by  his  orders; 
often  without  his  knowledge,  and  sometimes  against  his  will. 
Kigid  as  that  will  was,  it  was  forced  to  bend  to  the  anti-Popery 
utorin  which  swept  over  the  British  Islands  after  the  abdication 
of  King  James;  but  the  vices  and  follies  of  his  times  ought  no 
more  be  laid  to  the  personal  account  of  William  than  of  James 
or  Louis,  against  whom  he  fought 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRELAND.  605 


CHAPTER  XL 

REIGN  OF   QUEEN  ANNE. 

THI  reign  of  Queen  Anne  occupies  twelve  years  (1702  to 
1714).  The  new  sovereign,  daughter  of  James  by  hia  first  mar- 
riage, inherited  the  legacy  of  William's  wars,  arising  out  of  the 
European  coalition.  Her  diplomatists,  and  her  troops,  under  the 
leadership  of  Marlborough,  continued  throughout  her  reign  to 
combat  against  France,  in  Spain,  Germany,  and  the  Netherlands 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht  being  signed  only  the  year  before  her 
majesty's  decease.  In  domestic  politics,  the  main  occurrences 
were  the  struggle  of  the  Whigs  and  Tories,  immortalized  for  us  in 
the  pages  of  Swift,  Steele,  Addison,  and  Bolingbroke ;  the  limita- 
tion of  the  succession  to  the  descendants  of  the  Electress  Sophia, 
in  the  line  of  Hanover  ;  and  the  abortive  Jacobite  movement  on 
the  queen's  death  which  drove  Ormond  and  Atterbury  into 
exile. 

In  Ireland,  this  la  the  reign,  par  excellence,  of  the  penal  code. 
From  the  very  beginning  of  the  queen's  reign,  an  insatiate  spirit 
of  proscription  dictated  the  councils  of  the  Irish  obligarchy.  On 
the  arrival  of  the  second  and  last  Duke  of  Ormond,  in  1708,  as 
Lord-Lieutenant,  the  commons  waited  on  him  in  a  body,  with  a 
bill  "  for  discouraging  the  further  growth  of  Popery,"  to  which, 
the  duke  having  signified  his  entire  concurrence,  it  was  accord- 
ingly introduced,  and  became  law.  The  following  are  among  the 
most  remarkable  clauses  of  this  act :  The  third  clause  provides, 
that  if  the  son  of  an  estated  Papist,  shall  conform  to  the  established 
religion,  the  father  shall  be  incapacitated  from  selling  or  mortga- 
ging his  estate,  or  disposing  of  any  portion  of  it  by  will.  The 
fourth  clause  prohibits  a  Papist  from  being  the  guardian  of  hia 
own  child ;  and  orders,  that  if  at  any  time  the  child,  though  ever 
BO  young,  pretends  to  be  a  Protestant,  it  shall  be  taken  from  it« 
own  father,  and  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  nearest 
Protestant  relation.  The  sixth  clause  renders  Papists  incapable 
«f  purchasing  any  manors,  tenements,  hereditaments,  or  any  rentt 
51* 


606  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

or  profits  arising  out  of  the  same,  or  of  holding  any  lease  of  liv«* 
or  other  lease  whatever,  for  any  term  exceeding  thirty-one  years. 
And  with  respect  even  to  such  limited  leases,  it  further  enacts, 
that  if  a  Papist  should  hold  a  farm  producing  a  profit  greater  than 
one-third  of  the  amount  of  the  rent,  his  right  to  such  should  im- 
mediately cease,  and  pass  over  entirely  to  the  first  Protestant  who 
should  discover  the  rate  of  profit.  The  seventh  clause  prohibits 
Papists  from  succeeding  to  the  properties  or  estates  of  their  Pro- 
testant relations.  By  the  tenth  clause,  the  estate  of  a  Papist,  not 
having  a  Protestant  heir,  is  ordered  to  be  gavelled,  or  divided  in 
equal  shares  between  all  his  children.  The  sixteenth  and  twenty- 
fourth  clauses  impose  the  oath  of  abjuration,  and  the  sacramental 
test,  as  a  qualification  for  office,  and  for  voting  at  elections.  The 
twenty-third  clause  deprives  the  Catholics  of  Limerick  and  Gal- 
way  of  the  protection  secured  to  them  by  the  articles  of  the  treaty 
of  Limerick  The  twenty-fifth  clause  vests  in  her  majesty  all 
%dvowsons  possessed  by  Papists. 

Certain  Catholic  barristers,  living  under  protection,  not  yet 
excluded  from  the  practice  of  their  profession,  petitioned  to  be 
heard  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Accordingly,  Mr. 
Malone,  the  ancestor  of  three  generations  of  scholars  and  orators, 
Sir  Stephen  Rice,  one  of  the  most  spotless  characters  of  the  age, 
formerly  chief-justice  under  King  James,  and  Sir  Theobald  Butler, 
were  heard  against  the  bill.  The  argument  of  Butler,  who  stood 
at  the  very  head  of  his  profession,  remains  to  us  almost  in  its  en- 
tirety, and  commands  our  admiration  by  its  solidty  and  and  dignity. 
Never  was  national  cause  more  worthily  pleaded ;  never  was  the 
folly  of  religious  persecution  more  forcibly  exhibited.  Alluding 
to  the  monstrous  fourth  clause  of  the  bill,  the  great  advocate  ex- 
claimed : — 

"  It  is  natural  for  the  father  to  love  the  child ;  but  we  all  kn(nr 
that  children  are  but  too  apt  and  subject,  without  any  such  rberty 
as  this  bill  gives,  to  slight  and  neglect  their  duty  to  their 
parents ;  and  surely  such  an  act  as  this  will  not  be  an  instrument 
of  restraint,  but  rather  encourage  them  more  to  it 

"  It  is  but  too  common  with  the  son,  who  has  a  prospect  of  an 
estate,  when  once  he  arrives  at  the  age  of  one  and  twenty,  to  think 
the  '>!•!  faflif-r  t<*n  long  in  the  wny  between  him  and  it;  and  how 


POIULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  607 

much  more  will  he  be  subject  to  it,  when,  by  this  act,  he  shall 
have  liberty,  before  he  comes  to  that  age,  to  compel  and  force  my 
estate  from  me,  without  asking  my  leave,  or  being  liable  to  account 
with  me  for  it,  or  out  of  his  share  thereof,  to  a  moiety  of  the  debts* 
portions,  or  other  encumbrances,  with  which  the  estate  might 
have  been  charged  before  the  passing  this  act ! 

"  Is  not  this  against  the  laws  of  God  and  man  ?  Against  the 
rules  of  reason  and  justice,  by  which  all  men  ought  to  be  governed  ? 
Is  not  this  the  only  way  in  the  world  to  make  children  become 
undutiful  ?  and  to  bring  the  gray  head  of  the  parent  to  the  grave 
with  grief  and  tears  ? 

"  It  would  be  hard  from  any  man ;  but  from  a  son,  a  child,  the 
fruit  of  my  body,  whom  I  have  nursed  in  my  bosom,  and  tendered 
more  dearly  than  my  own  life,  to  become  my  plunderer,  to  rob  me 
of  my  estate,  to  cut  my  throat,  and  to  take  away  my  bread,  is 
much  more  grievous  than  from  any  other  and  enough  to  mako 
the  most  flinty  of  hearts  to  bleed  to  think  on  it.  And  yet  this 
will  be  the  case  if  this  bill  pass  into  a  law;  which  I  hope  thia 
honorable  assembly  will  not  think  of,  when  they  shall  more  seri- 
ously consider,  and  have  weighed  these  matters. 

"  For  God's  sake,  gentlemen,  will  you  consider  whether  this  is 
according  to  the  golden  rule,  to  do  as  you  would  be  done  unto  ? 
And  if  not,  surely  you  will  not,  nay,  you  cannot,  without  being  liable 
to  be  charged  with  the  most  manifest  injustice  imaginable,  take 
from  us  our  birthrights,  and  invest  them  in  others  before  our  faces." 

When  Butler  and  Malone  had  closed,  Sir  Stephen  Rice  was 
heard,  not  in  his  character  of  council,  but  as  one  of  the  petitioners 
affected  by  the  act.  But  neither  the  affecting  position  of  that 
great  jurist,  who  from  the  rank  of  chief  baron  had  descended  to 
the  cuter  bar,  nor  the  purity  of  his  life,  nor  the  strength  of  hia 
argument,  had  any  effect  upon  the  oligarchy  who  heard  him.  Ho 
was  answered  by  quibbles  and  cavils,  unworthy  of  record,  and 
was  finally  informed  that  any  rights  which  Papists  "  pretended  to 
be  taken  from  them  by  the  Bill,  was  in  their  own  power  to  remedy, 
by  conforming,  which  in  prudence  they  ought  to  do  ;  and  that  they 
had  none  to  blame  but  themselves."  Next  day  the  bill  passed 
into  law. 

The  remnant  of  the  clergy  were  next  attacked.     On  the  I7tl| 


608  POPULAR    UI8TORT    OF    IRELAND. 

of  March,  1706,  the  Irish  Commons  resolved,  that  "  infcrming 
against  Papists  was  an  honorable  service  to  the  government,"  and 
that  all  magistrates  and  others  who  failed  to  put  the  penal  laws 
into  execution,  "  were  betrayers  of  the  liberties  of  the  kingdom." 
But  even  these  resolutions,  rewards,  and  inducements  were  in- 
sufficient to  satisfy  the  spirit  of  persecution. 

A  further  act  was  passed,  in  1 709,  imposing  additional  penal- 
ties.  The  first  clause  declares,  that  no  Papist  shall  be  capable  of 
holding  an  annuity  for  life.  The  third  provides,  that  the  child 
of  a  Papist,  on  conforming,  shall  at  once  receive  an  annuity  from 
his  father ;  and  that  the  Chancellor  shall  compel  the  father 
to  discover,  upon  oath,  the  full  value  of  his  estate,  real  and  per- 
sonal,  and  thereupon  make  an  order  for  the  support  of  such  con- 
forming child  or  children,  and  for  securing  such  a  share  of  the 
property,  after  the  father's  death,  as  the  court  shall  think  fit. 
The  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  clauses  secure  jointures  to  Popish 
wives  who  shall  conform.  The  sixteenth  prohibits  a  Papist  from 
teaching,  even  as  assistant  to  a  Protestant  master.  The  eigh- 
teenth gives  a  salary  of  £30  per  annum  to  Popish  priests  who 
shall  conform.  The  twentieth  provides  rewards  for  the  discovery 
of  Popish  prelates,  priests,  and  teachers,  according  to  the  follow, 
ing  whimsical  scale: — For  discovering  an  archbishop,  bishop 
vicar-general,  or  other  person,  exercising  any  foreign  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction,  £60;  for  discovering  each  regular  clergyman,  and 
each  secular  clergyman  not  registered,  £20,  and  for  discovering 
each  Popish  schoolmaster  or  usher,  £10.  The  twenty-first  clause 
empowers  two  justices  to  summon  before  them  any  Papist  over 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  interrogate  him  when  and  where  he 
last  heard  mass  said,  and  the  names  of  the  persons  present,  and 
likewise  touching  the  residence  of  any  Popish  priest  or  school- 
master ;  and  if  he  refuse  to  give  testimony,  subjects  him  to  a  fine 
of  £20,  or  imprisonment  for  twelve  months. 

Several  other  penal  laws  were  enacted  by  the  same  parliament, 
of  which  we  can  only  notice  one ;  it  excluded  Catholics  from  the 
office  of  sheriff,  and  from  grand  juries,  and  enacts,  that,  in  trial* 
upon  any  statute  for  strengthening  the  Protestant  interest,  th« 
plaintiff  might  challenge  a  juror  for  being  a  Papist,  which  clud- 
jenge  the  judge  was  to  allow. 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELA1O.  COS 

By  a  royal  proclamation  of  the  same  year,  all  "registered 
priests  "  were  to  lake  "  the  oath  of  abjuration  before  the  25th  of 
March,  1710,"  under  penalty  of  premunire.  Under  this  proclama  • 
tion  and  the  tariff  of  rewards  just  cited,  there  grew  up  a  class  of 
men,  infamous  and  detestable,  known  by  the  nickname  of  "  priest 
hunters."  One  of  the  most  successful  of  these  traffickers  in  blood, 
was  a  Portuguese  Jew,  named  Garcia,  settled  at  Dublin.  He  was 
very  skillful  at  disguises.  "  He  sometimes  put  on  the  mien  of  a 
priest,  for  he  affected  to  be  one,  and  thus  worming  himself  into 
the  good  graces  of  some  confiding  Catholic,  got  a  clue  to  the 
whereabouts  of  the  clergy."  In  1718,  Garcia  succeeded  in  arrest- 
ing seven  unregistered  priests,  for  whose  detection  he  had  a  sum 
equal  to  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  of  American  money.  To 
such  an  excess  was  this  trade  carried,  that  a  reaction  set  in,  and 
a  Catholic  bishop  of  Ossory,  who  lived  at  the  time  these  acts 
were  still  in  force,  records  that  "  the  priest-catchers'  occupation 
became  exceedingly  odious  both  to  Protestants  and  Catholics," 
and  that  himself  had  seen  "  ruffians  of  this  calling  assailed  with 
a  shower  of  stones,  flung  by  both  Catholics  and  Protestants." 
But  this  creditable  reaction  only  became  general  under  George 
IL,  twenty  years  after  the  passage  of  the  act  of  Queen  Anne. 

We  shall  have  to  mention  some  monstrous  additions  made  to 
the  code  during  the  first  George's  reign,  and  6ome  attempts  to 
repair  and  perfect  its  diabolical  machinery,  even  so  late  as 
George  III ;  but  the  great  body  of  the  penal  law  received  its 
chief  accessions  from  the  oligarchical  Irish  parliament,  under 
Queen  Anne.  Hitherto,  we  have  often  had  to  point  out,  how 
with  all  its  constitutional  defects — with  the  law  of  Poynings, 
obliging  heads  of  bills  to  be  first  sent  into  England — fettering  its 
freedom  of  initiative ; — how,  notwithstanding  all  defects,  the 
Irish  parliament  had  asserted,  at  many  critical  periods,  its  own 
and  the  people's  rights,  with  an  energy  worthy  of  admiration. 
But  the  collective  bigots  of  this  reign,  were  wholly  unworthy 
of  the  name  of  a  parliament.  They  permitted  the  woolen  trade 
to  be  sacrificed  without  a  struggle, — they  allowed  the  bold  prop, 
ositions  of  Molyneux,  one  of  their  own  number,  to  be  condemned 
and  reprobated  without  a  protest.  The  knotted  lash  of  Jonathan 
Swift  was  never  more  worthily  aprMed,  than  to  "the  Legion 


610  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF   IRBLAND. 

Club,'  which  he  has  consigned  to  such  an  unenviable  immortal 
ity.  Swift's  inspiration  may  have  been  mingled  with  bitter  di» 
appointment  and  personal  revenge;  but,  whatever  motives  am 
mated  him,  his  fearless  use  of  his  great  abilities  must  alwayi 
make  him  the  first  political,  as  he  was  certainly  the  first  literary 
character  of  Ireland  at  that  day.  In  a  country  so  bare  and 
naked  as  he  found  it;  with  a  bigotry  so  rampant  and  united 
before  him  ;  it  needed  no  ordinary  courage  and  capacity  to  evoke 
anything  like  public  opinion  or  public  spirit.  Let  us  be  just  to 
that  most  unhappy  man  of  genius ;  let  us  proclaim,  that  Irish 
nationality,  bleeding  at  every  pore,  and  in  danger  of  perishing 
by  the  wayside,  found  shelter  on  the  breast  of  Swift,  and  took 
new  heart  from  the  example  of  that  bold  churchman,  before 
whom  the  parliament,  the  bench  of  bishops,  and  the  viceroy 
trembled. 


CHAPTER  XIL 

THE     IRISH     SOLDIERS    ABROAD    DURING   THE     REIGNS   OK   WILLIAM    AND 
ANNE. 

THE  close  of  the  second  reign  from  the  seige  of  Limerick,  im- 
poses the  duty  of  casting  our  eyes  over  the  map  of  Europe,  in 
quest  of  those  gallant  exiles  whom  we  have  seen,  in  tens  of 
thousands,  submitting  to  the  hard  necessity  of  expatriation. 

Many  of  the  Meath  mnd  Leinster  Irish,  under  their  native 
commanders,  the  Kavanaghs  and  Nugents,  carried  their  swords 
into  the  service  of  William's  ally,  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  and 
distinguished  themselves  in  all  the  campaigns  of  Prince  Eugene. 
Spain  attracted  to  her  standard  the  Iiish  of  the  northwest,  the 
O'Donnella,  the  O'Reillys  and  O'Garas,  whose  regiments,  during 
more  than  one  reign,  continued  to  be  known  by  names  of  Ulster 
origin.  In  1707,  the  great  battle  of  Almanza,  which  decided  the 
Bpanich  succession,  was  determined  by  O'Mahony's  foot  and 
Fitzj.'imes's  Iri*h  horse.  The  next  year  Spain  had  five  Irish  regi- 
ments in  her  regular  army,  three  of  foot  nnd  two  of  dragoons, 
under  the  command  of  Lacy,  Lawless,  Wogan,  O'Reilly  and 
O'Gara.  But  it  was  in  Franc*-  that  the  Irish  served  in  thi 


POPULAR   HISTOKT    OF   IRELAND.  Oil 

greatest  number,  and  made  the  most  impressive  history  toi 
themselves  and  their  descendants. 

The  recruiting  agents  of  France  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
crossing  the  narrow  seas,  and  bringing  back  the  stalwart  son! 
of  the  western  Island  to  serve  their  ambitious  kings,  in  every 
corner  of  the  continent.  An  Irish  troop  of  horse  served,  in  1652, 
under  Turenne,  against  the  great  Conde\  In  the  campaigns  of 
1673,  1674  and  1675,  under  Turenne,  two  or  three  Irish  regi- 
ments were  in  every  engagement  along  the  Rhine.  At  Alten- 
heim,  their  commander,  Count  Hamilton,  was  created  a  major- 
general  of  France.  In  1690,  these  old  regiments,  with  the  six 
new  ones  sent  over  by  James,  were  formed  into  a  brigade,  and  from 
1690  to  1693,  they  went  through  the  campaigns  of  Savoy  and  Italy, 
under  Marshal  Catinat,  against  Priuce  Eugene.  Justin  McCar- 
thy, Lord  Mountcashel,  who  commanded  them,  died  at  Baregea 
of  wounds  received  at  Staffardo.  At  Marsiglia,  they  routed,  in 
1693,  the  allies,  killing  Duke  Schomberg,  son  to  the  Huguenot 
general  who  fell  at  the  Boyue. 

The  "  New  "  or  Sarsfield's  brigade  was  employed  under  Lux- 
embourg,against  King  William,  in  Flanders,  in  1692  and  1693. 
At  Namur  and  Enghien,  they  were  greatly  distinguished,  and 
William  more  than  once  sustained  heavy  loss  at  their  hands, 
Sarsfield,  their  brigadier,  for  these  services,  was  made  mareschal- 
de-camp.  At  Landen,  on  the  29th  of  July,  '98,  France  again 
triumphed  to  the  cry,  "  Remember  Limerick!"  Sarsfield,  lead- 
ing on  the  fierce  pursuers,  fell  moi-tally  wounded.  Pressing  his 
hand  upon  the  wound,  he  took  it  away  dripping  with  blood,  and 
only  said,  "  Oh,  that  this  was  for  Ireland  I" 

In  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  the  remnants  of  both  bri- 
gades, consolidated  into  one,  served  under  their  favorite  leader, 
the  Marshal  Duke  of  Berwick,  through  nearly  all  his  campaigns 
in  Belgium,  Spain  and  Germany.  The  third  Lord  Clare,  after- 
wards Field-Marshal  Count  Thomond,  was  by  the  Duke's  side 
at  Phillipsburg,  in  1733,  when  he  received  his  death-wound  from 
the  explosion  of  a  mine.  These  exiled  Clare  O'Briens  commanded 
for  three  generations  their  famous  family  regiment  of  dragoons. 
The  first  who  followed  king  James  abroad  died  of  wounds  re- 
ceived  at  the  battle  of  Ramillies ;  the  third,  with  better  fortune, 


612  POPULAR   HJ6IO&X    O»  I&KLAND. 

outlived  for  nearly  thirty  years  the  glorious  day  of  Fontenoy. 
The  Irish  cavalry  regiments  in  the  service  of  France  wer« 
She^on's,  Galmoy's,  Clare's,  and  Killmallock's ;  the  infantry  were 
known  as  the  regiments  of  Dublin,  Charlemont,  Limerick  and 
Athlone.  There  were  two  other  infantry  regiments,  known  as 
Luttrel's  and  Dorrington's — and  a  regiment,  of  Irish  marines,  of 
which  the  Grand  Prior,  Fitzjames,  was  colonel.  During  the  latter 
years  of  Louis  XIV.,  there  could  not  have  been  less,  at  any  one 
time,  than  from  20,000  to  3u,OOU  Irish  in  his  armies,  and  during 
the  entire  century,  authentic  documents  exist  to  prove  that 
450,000  natives  of  Ireland  died  in  the  military  service  of  France. 

In  the  dreary  reigns  of  William,  Anne,  and  the  two  first 
Georges,  the  pride  and  courage  of  the  disarmed  and  disinherited 
population,  abiding  at  home,  drew  new  life  and  vigor  from  the 
exploits  of  their  exiled  brethren.  The  channel  smuggler  and  the 
vagrant  ballad-singer  kept  alive  their  fame  for  the  lower  class  of 
the  population,  while  the  memoirs  of  Marlborough  and  Eugene, 
issuing  from  the  Dublin  press,  communicated  authentic  accounts 
of  their  actions,  to  the  more  prejudiced,  or  better  educated.  The 
blows  they  struck  at  Landen,  at  Cremona,  and  at  Almanza,  were 
sensibly  felt  by  every  British  statesman ;  when,  in  the  bitterness 
of  defeat,  an  English  king  cursed  "  the  laws  that  deprived  him  of 
such  subjects,"  the  doom  of  the  penal  code  was  pronounced. 

The  high  character  of  the  famous  captains  of  these  brigades 
was  not  confined  to  the  field  of  battle.  At  Paris,  Vienna,  and 
Madrid,  their  wit  and  courtesy  raised  them  to  the  favor  of  princes, 
over  the  jealousy  of  all  their  rivals.  Important  civil  and  diplo- 
matic offices  were  entrusted  to  them — embassys  of  peace  and  war 
— the  government  of  provinces,  and  the  highest  administrative 
offices  of  the  state.  While  their  kinsmen  in  Ireland  were  de- 
clared incapable  of  filling  the  humblest  public  employments  or 
of  exercising  the  commonest  franchise,  they  met  British  ambas 
sadora  abroad  as  equals,  and  checked  or  countermined  the  im- 
perial policy  of  Great  Britain.  It  was  impossible  that  such  a 
contrast  of  situations  should  not  attract  the  attention  of  all  think- 
ing  men !  It  was  impossible  that  such  reputations  should  shin« 
before  all  Europe  without  reacting  powerfully  on  the  fallen  for 
tune?  of  Ireland  I 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  613 


BOOK  IX. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE  I.  TO 
THE  LEGISLATIVE  UNION  OF  GREAT 
BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ACCESSION   OF   GEORGE   I. — SWIFTS    LEADERSHIP. 

THE  last  years  of  Queen  Anne  had  been  years  of  intrigue  and 
preparation  with  the  Jacobite  leaders  throughout  the  three  king- 
doms. At  their  head  stood  Ormond,  the  second  and  last  Duke 
of  his  name,  and  with  him  were  associated  at  one  stage  or  another 
of  his  design,  Bolingbroke,  Orrery,  Bishop  Atterbury,  and  other 
influential  persons.  It  was  thought  that  had  this  party  acted 
promptly  on  the  death  of  the  queen,  and  proclaimed  James  III. 
(or  "  the  Pretender,"  as  he  was  called  by  the  partisans  of  the  new 
dynasty),  the  Act  of  Succession  might  have  remained  a  dead 
letter,  and  the  Stuarts  recovered  their  ancient  sovereignty.  But 
the  partisans  of  the  elector  were  the  first  in  the  field,  and  King 
George  was  accordingly  proclaimed,  on  the  1st  of  August,  st 
London,  and  on  the  6th  of  August,  at  Dublin. 

In  Dublin,  where  serious  apprehensions  of  a  Jacobite  rising 
were  entertained,  the  proclamation  was  made  by  the  glare  of 
torches  at  the  extraordinary  hour  of  midnight.  Two  or  three 
arrests  of  insignificant  persons  were  made,  and  letters  to  Swift 
being  found  on  one  of  them,  the  dean  was  thought  by  his  friends 
to  be  in  some  danger.  But  it  is  not  correct  to  say,  as  many 
writers  have  done,  that  he  found  it  necessary  to  retire  from  Dub- 
lin. The  only  inconvenience  he  suffered  was  from  the  hootinga 
and  re^ings  of  the  Protestant  rabble  in  the  street,  and  a  brutal 
threat  of  personal  violence  from  a  young  nobleman,  upjn  whom 
be  revenged  himself  in  a  characteristic  petition  to  the  House  of 
52 


614  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

Lords  "  for  j  rotection  against  the  said  lord."  Pretending  not  to  b« 
quite  sure  of  his  assailant,  he  proceeds  to  explain :  "  Your  petitioner 
is  informed  that  the  person  who  spoke  the  words  above  mentioned 
is  of  your  Lordships'  house,  under  the  style  and  title  of  Lord 
Blaney ;  whom  your  petitioner  remembers  to  have  introduced  to 
Mr.  Secretary  Addison,  in  the  Earl  of  Wharton's  government, 
aiid  to  have  done  him  other  good  offices  at  that  time,  because  he 
was  represented  as  a  young  man  of  some  hopes  and  a  broken 
fortune."  The  entire  document  is  a  curious  picture  of  the  inso- 
lence of  the  ascendancy  party  of  that  day,  even  towards  digni- 
taries of  their  own  church  who  refused  to  go  all  lengths  in  the 
only  politics  they  permitted  or  tolerated. 

It  was  while  smarting  under  these  public  indignities,  and  ex- 
cluded from  the  society  of  the  highest  class  in  his  own  country, 
witli  two  or  three  exceptions,  that  Swift  laid  the  foundations  of  his 
own  and  his  country's  patriotism,  among  the  educated  middle  class 
of  the  Irish  capital.  From  the  college  and  the  clergy  he  drew  Dr. 
Sheridan, — ancestor  of  six  generations  of  men  and  women  of 
genius  !  Doctors  Delaney,  Jackson,  Helsham,  Walmsley,  Stopford 
(afterwards  bishop  of  Cloyne),  and  the  three  reverend  brothers 
(i  rat  tan.  In  the  city  he  selected  as  his  friends  and  companions 
four  other  G  rattans,  one  of  whom  was  lord-mayor,  another  phy- 
sician to  the  castle,  one  a  school  master,  the  other  a  merchant. 
"  Do  you  know  the  Grattans  ?"  he  wrote  to  the  lord-lieutenant, 
Lord  Carteret ;  "  then  pray  obtain  their  acquaintance.  The 
Grattans,  my  lord,  can  raise  10,000  men."  Among  the  class  rep- 
resented by  this  admirable  family  of  seven  brothers,  and  in  that 
of  the  tradesmen  immediately  below  them,  of  which  wo  may  take 
his  printers,  Waters  and  Faulkner  for  types,  Swift's  haughty 
and  indignant  denunciations  of  the  oligarchy  of  the  hour  pro 
duced  striking  effects.  The  humblest  of  the  community  began 
to  raise  their  heads,  and  to  fix  their  eyes  steadily  on  pub'io 
affairs  and  public  characters.  Questions  of  currency,  of  trade, 
of  the  administration  of  justice  and  of  patronage,  were  earnestly 
discussed  in  the  press  and  in  society,  and  thus  by  slow  but  grad- 
ually ascending  steps  a  spirit  of  independence  was  promoted 
where  hitherto  only  servility  had  reigned. 

The  obligations  of  his  cotemporaries  to  Swift  are  not  to  t* 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  615 

counted  simply  by  what  he  was  able  to  originate  or  to  advocate  in 
their  behalf — for  not  much  could  be  done  in  that  way,  in  such 
time*,  and  in  such  a  position  as  his — but  rather  in  regaro  to  tha 
enemies  and  inaligners  of  that  people,  whom  he  exposed  and  pun- 
ished. To  understand  the  value  of  his  example  and  inspiration,  we 
must  read  over  again  his  castigations  of  Wharton,  of  Burnet.  of 
Boulter,  of  Whitshed,  of  Allan,  and  all  the  leaders  of  the  oligarchy, 
in  the  Irish  Parliament.  When  we  have  done  so,  we  shall  see  at 
once,  how  his  imperial  reputation,  his  personal  position,  and  every 
faculty  of  his  powerful  mind  were  employed  alike  to  combat  in- 
justice and  proscription,  to  promote  freedom  of  opinion  and  of 
trade,  to  punish  the  abuses  of  judicial  power,  and  to  cultivate  and 
foster,  a  spirit  of  self  reliance  and  economy  among  all  classes — 
especially  the  humblest.  In  his  times,  and  in  his  position,  with  a 
cassock  "  entangling  his  course,"  what  more  could  have  been  ex- 
pected of  him  ? 

The  Parliament  which  met  in  1715 — elected,  according  to  the 
then  usage,  for  the  lifetime  of  the  king — commenced  its  career  by 
an  act  of  attainder  against  the  Pretender,  accompanied  by  a  reward 
of  £50,000  for  his  apprehension.  The  Lords-Justices,  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  and  the  Earl  of  Gal  way,  recommended  in  their  speech  to 
the  Houses,  that  they  should  cultivate  such  unanimity  aimong 
themselves  as  "  at  once  to  put  an  end  to  all  other  distinctions  in 
Ireland,  but  that  of  Protestant  and  Papist."  In  the  same  speech, 
and  in  all  the  debates  of  that  reign,  the  Catholics  were  spoken  of 
as  "  the  common  enemy,"  and  all  who  sympathized  with  them,  aa 
"  enemies  of  the  constitution."  But  far  as  this  Parliament  was 
from  all  our  ideas  of  what  a  national  legislature  ought  to  be,  it  was 
precisely  at  this  period,  when  the  administration  could  not  be 
worse,  that  the  foundation  was  laid  of  the  great  contest  for  legis- 
lative independence,  which  was  to  continue  through  three  genera, 
tiona,  and  to  constitute  the  main  staple  of  the  Irish  history  of  this 
century. 

In  th  year  1717,  the  English  House  of  Lords  entertained  and 
decided,  as  a  court  of  last  resort,  an  appeal  from  the  Irish  courts, 
already  passed  on  by  the  Irish  Lords',  in  the  famous  real-estate 
case  of  Annesley  versus  Sherlock.  The  proceeding  was  novel, 
fciid  was  protested  against  in  the  English  house  nt  the  time  by 


616  POFULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

the  Duke  of  Leeds,  and  in  the  Irish,  by  the  majority  of  the  whole 
house.  But  the  British  Parliament,  not  content  with  claiming 
the  power,  proceeded  to  establish  the  principle,  by  the  declaratory 
act — 6th  George  I. — for  securing  the  dependence  of  Ireland  on  the 
crown  of  Great  Britain.  This  statute,  even  more  objectionable 
than  the  law  of  Poynings,  continued  nnrepealed  till  1782,  not- 
withstanding all  the  arguments  and  all  the  protests  of  the  Irish 
patriot  party.  The  Lords  of  Ireland,  unsupported  by  the  bigoted 
and  unprincipled  oligarchy  in  the  Commons,  were  shorn  of  their 
appellate  jurisdiction,  and  their  journals  for  many  years  contain 
few  entries  of  business  done,  beyond  servile  addresses  to  succes- 
sive viceroys,  and  motions  of  adjournment. 

In  their  session  of  1728,  the  ascendancy  party  in  the  Common! 
proceeded  to  their  last  extreme  of  violence  against  the  prostrate 
Catholics.  An  act  was  introduced  founded  on  eight  resolutions, 
"  further  to  prevent  the  growth  of  Popery."  One  of  these  resolu- 
tions regularly  transmitted  to  England  by  the  viceroy — proposed 
that  every  priest,  arrested  within  the  realm,  should  suffer  the 
penalty  of  castration  !  For  the  first  time,  a  penal  law  was  re- 
jected with  horror  and  indignation  by  the  English  Privy  Council, 
and  the  whole  elaborate  edifice,  overweighted  with  these  last  pro- 
positions, trembled  to  its  base.  But  though  badly  shaken,  it  was 
yet  far  from  coming  down. 

"  Do  not  tlie  corruptions  and  villainies  of  men,"  said  Swift  to 
his  friend  Delaney,  "  eat  your  flesh  and  exhaust  your  spirits?" 
They  certainly  gnawed  at  the  heart  of  the  courageous  dean,  but 
at  the  same  time,  they  excited  rather  than  exhausted  his  spirits. 
In  1720  he  resumed  his  pen,  as  a  political  writer,  in  his  famous 
pr^posa.  "  for  the  universal  use  of  Irish  manufactures."  Waters, 
the  printer  of  this  piece,  was  indicted  for  a  seditious  libel,  before 
Chief  Justice  Whitahed,  the  immortal  "  coram  nobi*,"  of  the 
dean's  political  ballads.  The  jury  were  detained  eleven  hours, 
and  sent  ouf  nine  times,  to  compel  them  to  agree  on  a  verdict. 
They  at  length  finally  declared  they  could  not  agree,  and  a  no/, 
pro*,  was  soon  after  entered  by  the  crown.  This  trial  of  Swift's 
printer  in  1720  is  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  duels  with  the 
erown  lawyers,  which  the  Irish  press  has  since  maintained  with 
M  much  firmness  and  self-sacrifice,  as  any  press  ever  exhibited. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  617 

And  it  may  be  said  that  never,  not  even  under  martial  law,  was  a 
conspicuous  example  of  civic  courage  more  necessary,  cr  more 
dangerous.  Browne,  Bishop  of  Cork,  had  been  in  danger  of  de- 
privation for  preaching  a  sermon  against  the  well-known  toast  to 
the  memory  of  King  William ;  Swift  was  threatened,  as  we  see,  a 
few  years  earlier,  with  personal  violence  by  a  Whig  lord,  and 
pelted  by  a  Protestant  rabble,  for  his  supposed  Jacobitism ;  his 
friend,  Dr.  Sheridan,  lost  his  Munster  living  for  having  accident- 
ally chosen  as  his  text,  on  the  anniversary  of  King  George's  coro- 
nation, "  sufficient  for  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof."  Such  was  the 
intolerance  of  the  oligarchy  towards  their  own  clergy.  What 
must  it  have  been  to  others  ! 

The  attempt  to  establish  a  National  Bank,  and  the  introduction 
of  a  debased  copper  coinage,  for  which  a  patent  had  been  granted 
to  one  William  Wood,  next  employed  the  untiring  pen  of  Swift. 
The  half-penny  controversy,  was  not,  as  is  often  said,  a  small  mat- 
ter ;  it  was  nearly  as  important  as  the  bank  project  itself.  Of  tbs 
£100,000  worth  coined,  the  intrinsic  value  was  shown  to  be  not 
more  than  £6,000.  Such  was  the  storm  excited  against  the 
patentee,  that  his  Dublin  agents  were  obliged  to  resign  their  con- 
nection with  him,  and  the  royal  letters-patent  were  unwillingly 
canceled.  The  bank  project  was  also  rejected  by  Parliament, 
adding  another  to  the  triumphs  of  the  invincible  Dean. 

During  the  last  years  of  this  reign,  Swift  was  the  most  power-- 
fill  and  popular  person  in  Ireland,  and  perhaps  in  the  empire. 
The  freedom  with  which  he  advised  Oarteret  the  viceroy,  and 
remonstrated  with  Walpole,  the  premier,  on  the  misrule  of  his 
country,  was  worthy  of  the  ascendancy  of  his  genius.  No  man 
of  letters,  no  churchman,  no  statesman  of  any  country  in  anj 
age,  ever  showed  himself  more  thoroughly  independent,  in  his 
intercourse  with  men  in  office,  than  Swift.  The  vice  of  -Ireland 
was  exactly  the  other  way,  so  that  in  this  respect  also,  the  patriot 
was  the  liberator. 

Rising  with  the  rise  of  public  spirit,  the  great  churchman,  in 
his  fourth  letter,  in  the  assumed  character  of  M.  B.  Drapier,  con- 
fronted the  question  of  legislative  independence.  Alluding  to 
the  puLiphlet  of  ilolyneux,  published  tliirty  years  before,  he 
pronounced  its  arguments  invincible,  and  the  contrary  ay  stern 
62* 


618  POPULAR   H18TOBT   OF  IRELAND. 

"  the  very  definition  of  slavery."  "  The  remedy,"  he  conclude*, 
addressing  the  Irish  people,  "  is  wholly  in  your  own  hands,  and 
therefore  I  have  digressed  a  little,  in  order  to  refresh  and  con 
tinue  that  spirit  so  seasonably  raised  among  you,  and  to  let  yon 
see,  that,  by  the  laws  of  God,  of  nature,  of  nations,  and  of  your 
country,  you  are,  and  ought  to  be,  as  free  a  people  ax  your  brethren 
in  England."  For  this  letter  also,  the  printer,  Harding,  was  in* 
dieted,  but  the  Dublin  grand  jury,  infected  with  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  unanimously  ignored  the  bilL  A  reward  of  £300  was  then 
issued  from  the  castle  for  the  discovery  of  the  author,  but  no 
informer  could  be  found  base  enough  to  betray  him.  For  a  time, 
however,  to  escape  the  ovations  he  despised,  and  the  excitement 
which  tried  his  health,  Swill  retired  to  his  friend  Sheridan's  cot- 
tage on  the  banks  of  Loch  Rumor,  in  Cavan,  and  there  recreated 
himself  with  long  rides  about  the  country,  and  the  composition 
of  the  Travels  of  the  immortal  Gulliver. 

Sir  Robert  Walpole,  alarmed  at  the  exhibition  of  popular  intel- 
ligence and  determination  evoked  by  Swift,  committed  the  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  to  his  rival  Lord  Carteret — whom  he  was 
besides  not  sorry  to  remove  to  a  distance— and  appointed  to  the 
Bee  of  Armagh,  which  fell  vacant  about  the  tune  of  the  currency 
dispute,  l)r.  Hugh  Boulter,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  one  of  his  owr 
areatures.  This  prelate,  a  politician  by  taste  and  inclination 
modeled  his  policy  on  his  patron's,  as  far  as  his  more  contracted 
sphere  and  inferior  talents  permitted.  To  buy  members  in  mar- 
ket overt,  with  peerages,  or  secret  service  money,  was  his  chief 
means  of  securing  a  parliamentary  majority.  An  Englishman 
by  birth  and  education  ;  the  head  of  the  Protestant  establishment 
in  Ireland,  it  was  inevitable  that  his  policy  should  be  English 
and  Protestant,  in  every  particular.  To  resist,  depress,  disunite, 
and  defeat  the  believer*  in  the  dangerous  doctrines  of  Swift  and 
Molyneux,  was  the  sole  rule  of  his  nearly  twenty  years'  political 
supremacy  in  Irish  affairs.  (1724-1742.)  The  master  of  a 
princely  income,  endowed  with  strong  passions,  unlimited  patron- 
age, and  great  activity,  he  may  be  said  to  have  reigned  rather 
than  led,  even  when  the  nominal  vicefoyalty  was  in  the  .ands 
of  such  able  and  accomplished  men  as  Lords  Carteret,  Donmt  and 
Devonshire.  His  failure  in  his  first  state  trial,  against  Harding 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  619 

th«  i  :inter,  nothing  discouraged  him  ;  he  had  come  into  Ireland 
to  secure  the  English  interest,  by  uprooting  the  last  vestiges  of 
Popery  and  independence,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  those  objects 
with  persevering  determination.  In  1727 — the  year  of  George 
the  First's  decease — he  obtained  the  disfranchisement  of  Catholic 
electors  by  a  clause  quietly  inserted  without  notice,  in  a  Bill  regu- 
lating elections ;  and  soon  after  he  laid  the  foundations  of  those 
nurseries  of  proselytism,  "  the  Charter  Schools." 


CHAPTER  II. 

EBIGN    OF    GEORGE    IT. GROWTH   OF   PUBLIC    SPIRIT THE    "  PATEIOT  * 

PARTY LORD    CHESTERFIELD'S   ADMINISTRATION. 

THE  accession  of  King  George  II.  in  1727,  led  to  no  consider- 
able changes,  either  in  England  or  Ireland.  Sir  Robert  "Walpole 
continued  supreme  in  the  one  country,  and  Primate  Boulter  in 
the  other.  The  Jacobites,  disheartened  by  their  ill  success  in 
1715,  and  repelled  rather  than  attracted  by  the  austere  character 
of  him  they  called  King  James  III.,  made  no  sign.  The  new  king's 
first  act  was  to  make  public  the  declaration  he  had  addressed  to 
the  Privy  Council,  of  his  firm  resolution  to  uphold  the  existing 
constitution  "  in  church  and  state." 

The  Catholic  population,  beginning  once  more  to  raise  their 
beads,  thought  this  a  suitable  occasion  to  present  a  humble  and 
loyal  address  of  congratulation  to  the  Lords  Justices,  in  the 
absence  of  the  viceroy.  Lord  Delvin  and  several  of  their  num- 
ber accordingly  appeared  at  the  Castle,  and  delivered  their 
address,  which  they  begged  might  be  forwarded  to  the  foot  of 
the  throne.  No  notice  whatever  was  taken  of  this  document, 
either  at  Dublin  or  London,  nor  were  the  class  who  signed  it 
permitted  by  law  to  "  testify  their  allegiance  "  to  the  sovereign, 
for  fifty  years  later — down  to  1778. 

The  Duke  of  Dorset,  who  succeeded  Lord  Carteret  as  viceroy 
IE  1731,  unlike  his  immediate  predecessor,  refrained  from  suggest 
Ing  additional  severities  against  the  Catholics.  His  firs*,  term  of 


020  POPULAR    HISTORY    0V   IRELAND. 

office  —  two  years  —  was  almost  entirely  occupied  with  th« 
fiercest  controversy  which  had  ever  waged  in  Ireland  between  the 
Established  Church  and  the  Protestant  Dissenters.  The  ground 
of  the  dispute  was  the  sacramental  test,  imposed  by  law  upon 
the  members  of  both  houses,  and  all  burgesses  and  councillors  of 
corporate  towns.  By  the  operations  of  this  law,  when  rigidly 
enforced,  Presbyterians  and  other  dissenters  were  as  effectually 
excluded  from  political  and  municipal  offices  as  Catholics  them- 
selves. Against  this  exclusion  it  was  natural  that  a  body  ao 
numerous,  and  possessed  of  so  much  property,  especially  in 
Ulster,  should  make  a  vigorous  resistance.  Relying  on  the  great 
share  they  had  in  the  revolution,  they  endeavored,  though  in 
effectually,  to  obtain  under  King  William  the  repeal  of  the  Test 
Act  of  King  Charles  II.  Under  Queen  Anne  they  were  equally 
unsuccessful,  as  we  may  still  read  with  interest  in  the  pages  of 
Swift,  De  Foe,  Tennison,  Boyse,  and  King.  Swift,  especially, 
brought  to  the  controversy  not  only  the  zeal  of  a  churchman, 
but  the  prejudices  of  an  Anglo  Irishman,  against  the  new-corners 
in  the  north.  He  upbraids  them  in  1708,  as  glad  to  leave  their 
barren  hills  of  Lochaber  for  the  fruitful  vales  of  Down  and  An- 
trim, for  their  parsimony  and  their  clannishnesa.  He  denied  to 
them,  with  bitter  scorn,  the  title  they  had  assumed  of  "  Brother 
Protestants,"  and  as  to  the  Papists,  whom  they  affected  to  des- 
pise, they  were,  in  his  opinion,  as  much  superior  to  the  Dissent- 
ers, as  a  lion,  though  chained  and  clipped  of  its  claws,  is  a 
stronger  and  nobler  animal  than  an  angry  cat,  at  liberty  to  fly  at 
the  throats  of  true  churchmen.  The  language  of  the  Presby- 
terian champions  was  equally  bold,  denunciatory,  and  explicit. 
They  broadly  intimated,  in  a  memorial  to  parliament,  that  under 
the  operatior  of  the  test,  they  would  be  unable  to  take  up  arms 
again,  aa  they  »ad  done  in  1688,  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Protestant  succession;  a  covert  menace  of  insurrection,  which 
Swift  and  their  other  opponents  did  not  fail  to  make  the  most  of 
Still  farther  to  embarrass  them,  Swift  got  up  a  paper  making  out 
•  much  stronger  case  in  favor  of  the  Catholics  than  of  "  their 
brethren,  the  Dissenter5,"  and  the  controversy  closed,  for  that 
age,  in  the  complete  triumph  of  the  established  clergy. 
This  iniquitous  deprivation  of  equal  civil  rights,  accompanied 


POPULAR    HISTORY    Ol    IRELAND.  621 

with  the  onerous  burthen  of  tithes  falling  heaviest  on  the  culti- 
vators of  the  soil,  produced  the  first  great  Irish  exodus  to  the 
North  American  Colonies.  The  tithe  of  agistment  or  pasturage, 
lately  abolished,  had  made  the  tithe  of  tillage  more  unjust  and 
unequal.  Outraged  in  their  dearest  civil  and  religious  rights, 
thousands  of  the  Scoto-Irish  of  Ulster,  and  the  Milesian  and 
Anglo-Irish  of  the  other  provinces,  preferred  to  encounter  the 
perils  of  an  Atlantic  flitting  rather  than  abide  under  the  yoke  and 
lash  of  such  an  oligarchy.  In  the  year  1729,  five  thousand  six 
hundred  Irish  landed  at  the  single  port  of  Philadelphia ;  in  the 
next  ten  years  they  furnished  to  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  the 
majority  of  their  immigrants ;  before  the  end  of  this  reign,  several 
thousands  of  heads  of  families,  all  bred  and  married  in  Ireland, 
were  rearing  up  a  free  posterity  along  the  slopes  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  even  as  far  north  as  the 
valleys  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Merrimac.  In  the  ranks  of  the 
thirteen  United  Colonies,  the  descendants  of  those  non-conform- 
ists were  to  repeat,  for  the  benefit  of  George  III.,  the  lesson  and 
example  their  ancestors  had  taught  to  James  II.  at  Enniskillen 
and  at  Derry. 

Swift,  with  all  his  services  to  his  own  order,  disliked,  and  was 
disliked  by  them.  Of  the  bishops  he  has  recorded  his  utter  con- 
\  tempt  in  some  of  the  most  cutting  couplets  that  even  he  ever 
te.  Boulter  he  detested ;  Narcissus  Marsh  he  despised ;  with 
Dr.  King,  of  Dublin,  Dr.  Bolton,  of  Cashel,  and  Dr.  Horte,  of 
Tuam,  he  barely  kept  up  appearances.  Except  Sterne,  Bishop  of 
Clogher,  Berkely,  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  and  Stopford,  his  successor, 
he  entertained  neither  friendship  nor  respect  for  one  of  that 
order.  And  on  their  part,  the  right  reverend  prelates  cordially 
reciprocated  his  antipathy.  They  resisted  his  being  made  a 
member  hi  the  Linen  Board,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  or  a  Visito? 
of  Trinity  College.  Had  he  appeared  amongst  them  in  parlia 
ment  as  their  peer,  they  would  have  been  compelled  to  accep. 
him  as  a  master,  or  combine  against  him  as  an  enemy.  No  wonder, 
then  that  successive  viceroys  shrank  from  nominating  him  to  any 
of  the  mitres  which  death  had  emptied ;  "  the  original  sin  of  hii 
birth"  was  iggravat.ed  in  their  eyes  by  the  actual  sin  of  his 
patriotism.  No  wonder  the  sheets  of  paper  that  littered  his  desk, 


622  POPULAR    HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 

before  he  sunk  into  his  last  sad  scene  of  dotage,  were  found 
scribbled  all  over  with  his  favorite  lines — 

"  Better  we  all  were  in  our  graves, 
Than  live  in  slavery  to  slaves." 

But  the  seeds  of  manly  thought  he  had  so  broadly  sown,  though 
for  a  season  hidden  even  from  the  sight  of  the  sower,  were  not 
dead,  nor  undergoing  decay.  With  something  of  the  prudence 
of  their  founder,  "  the  Patriot  party,"  as  the  opposition  to  the 
Castle  party  began  to  be  called,  occupied  themselves  at  first  with 
questions  of  taxation  and  expenditure.  In  1729,  the  Castle  at- 
tempted  to  make  it  appear  that  there  was  a  deficit — that  in  short 
''  the  country  owed  the  goverment" — the  large  sum  of  £274,000  1 
The  Patriots  met  this  claim,  by  a  motion  for  reducing  the  cost  of 
all  public  establishments.  This  was  the  chosen  ground  of  both 
parties,  and  a  more  popularly  intelligible  ground  could  not  be 
taken.  Between  retrenchment  and  extravagance,  between  high 
taxes  and  low,  even  the  least  educated  of  the  people  could  easily 
decide;  and  thenceforward  for  upwards  of  twenty  years,  no 
session  was  held  without  a  spirited  debate  on  the  supplies,  and 
the  whole  subject  of  the  public  expenditure. 

The  Duke  of  Devonshire,  who  succeeded  the  Duke  of  Dorset 
as  viceroy  in  1737,  contributed  by  his  private  munificence  and 
lavish  hospitalities  to  throw  a  factitious  popularity  round  his 
administration.  No  Dublin  tradesman  could  find  it  in  his  heart 
to  vote  ngainst  the  nominee  of  so  liberal  a  nobleman,  and  the 
public  opinion  of  Dublin  was  as  yet  the  public  opinion  of  Ire- 
land. But  the  Patriot  party  though  unable  to  stem  successfully 
the  tide  of  corruption  and  seduction  thus  let  loose,  held  their 
difficult  position  in  the  legislature  with  great  gallantry  and  ability. 
New  men  had  arisen  during  the  dotage  of  Swift,  who  revered  his 
tun  \5ira,  and  imitated  his  prudence.  Henry  Boyle,  speaker  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  afterwards  Earl  of  Shannon ;  Anthony 
Malone — son  of  the  confrere  of  Sir  Toby  Butler,  and  afterwards 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Sir  Edward  O'Brien,  member  for 
Clare,  and  his  son,  Sir  Lucius,  member  for  Ennie  were  the  pillars 
of  the  party.  Out  of  doors,  the  most  active  spirit  among  the 
Patriots,  was  Charles  Lucas,  a  native  of  Clare,  who  from  hui 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF    IRSLAND.  623 

fcpothecnry'd  shop  in  Dublin,  attempted,  not  without  both  talents, 
zeal  and  energy,  to  play  the  part  of  Swift,  at  the  press  and 
among  the  people.  His  public  writings,  commenced  in  174.1, 
brought  him  at  first  persecution  and  exile,  but  they  afterwards 
conducted  him  to  the  representation  of  the  capital,  and  an  honor- 
able niche  in  his  country's  history. 

The  great  event  which  may  be  said  to  divide  into  two  epochs 
the  reign  of  George  II.  was  the  daring  invasion  of  Scotland  in 
1746,  by  "  the  young  Pretender" — Charles  Edward.  This  brave 
and  unfortunate  Prince,  whose  adventures  will  live  forever  in 
Scottish  song  and  romance,  was  accompanied  from  France  by  Sir 
Thomas  Sheridan,  Colonel  O'Sullivau,  and  other  Irish  refugees, 
Btill  fondly  attached  to  the  house  of  Stuart.  It  is  not  to  be  sun- 
posed  that  these  gentlemen  would  be  without  correspondents  in  Ire- 
land, nor  that  the  state  of  that  country  could  be  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  the  astute  advisers  of  King  George.  In  reality,  Ireland 
was  almost  as  much  their  difficulty  as  Scotland,  and  their  choice 
of  a  viceroy,  at  this  critical  moment,  showed  at  once  their  esti- 
mate of  the  importance  of  the  position,  and  the  talents  of  the 
man. 

Philip  Dormer  Stanhope,  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  a  great  name  in 
the  world  of  fashion,  in  letters,  and  in  diplomacy,  is  especially 
memorable  to  us,  for  his  eight  months'  viceroyalty  ever  Ireland. 
That  office  had  been  long  the  object  of  his  ambition,  and  he  could 
hardly  have  attained  it  at  a  time  better  calculated  to  draw  out 
his  eminent  administrative  abilities.  By  temper  and  conviction 
opposed  to  persecution,  he  connived  at  Catholic  worship  under 
the  very  walls  of  the  Castle.  The  sour  and  jaundiced  bigotry  of 
the  local  oligarchy  he  encountered  with  bon  mots  and  raillery. 
The  only  "  dangerous  Papist "  he  had  seen  in  Ireland,  he  declared 
to  the  king  on  his  return,  was  a  celebrated  beauty  of  that  religion 
— Miss  Palmer.  Relying  on  the  magical  effect  of  doing  justice 
to  all  classes,  and  seeing  justice  done,  he  was  enabled  to  spare 
four  regiments  of  troops  for  the  war  in  Scotland,  instead  of 
demanding  additions  to  the  Irish  garrisons.  But  whether  to 
diminish  the  influence  which  his  brilliant  administration  had 
created  in  England,  or  through  the  machinations  of  the  oligarchy, 
•till  powerful  at  Dublin,  within  ten  days  from  the  decisive  bat 


C24  POPULAR    BISTORT   OF   IRELAND. 

tie  of  Culloden,  he  was  recalled.  The  fruits  of  bis  policy  might 
be  already  observed,  as  he  walked  on  foot,  his  countess  on  his 
arm,  to  the  place  of  embarkation,  amid  the  acclamations  of  aD 
ranks  and  classes  of  the  people,  and  their  affectionate  prayers  for 
his  speedy  return. 


CHAPTER  m. 

THX   LAST   JACOBITE    MOVEMENT. THE   IRISH    SOLDIERS    ABROAD. 

FRENCH  EXPEDITION   UNDER   THTJROT,  OR   O'FARRELL. 

THE  mention  of  the  Scottish  insurrection  of  1745  brings  natu- 
rally with  it  another  reference  to  the  history  of  the  Irish  soldiers 
in  the  military  service  of  France.  This  year  was  in  truth  the 
most  eventful  in  the  annals  of  that  celebrated  legion,  for  while  it 
was  the  year  of  Fontenoy  and  victory  on  the  one  hand,  it  was  on 
the  other  the  year  of  Culloden  and  defeat 

The  decisive  battle  of  Fontenoy,  in  which  the  Franco-Irish 
troops  bore  so  decisive  a  part,  was  fought  on  the  1 1th  of  May, 
1745.  The  French  army,  commanded  by  Saxe,  and  accompanied 
by  King  Louis,  leaving  18,000  men  to  besiege  Namur,  and  6,000 
to  guard  the  Scheldt,  took  a  position  between  that  river  and  the 
%Uies,  having  their  centre  at  the  village  of  Fontenoy.  The 
British  and  Dutch,  under  the  king's  favorite  son,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  were  65,000  strong;  the  French  45,000.  After  a 
hard  day's  fighting,  victory  seemed  to  declare  so  clearly  against 
France,  that  King  Louis,  who  was  present,  prepared  for  flight. 
At  this  moment  Marshal  Saze  ordered  a  final  charge  by  the  seven 
Irish  regiments  under  Counts  Dillon  and  Thomond.  The  tid« 
wa«  turned,  beyond  expectation,  to  the  cry  of  "  Remember  Limer- 
ick P  France  was  delivered,  England  checked,  and  Holland  re 
duced  from  a  first  to  a  second-rate  power  upon  that  memorable 
day.  But  the  victory  was  dearly  bought  One  fourth  of  all  th« 
Irish  office™,  including  Count  Dillon,  were  killed,  and  one-third 
of  all  the  men.  The  whole  number  slain  on  the  side  of  Franc* 


rOPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  625 

was  sel  down  at  7,000  by  English  accounts,  while  they  admitted 
for  theuselves  alont,  4,000  British  and  3,300  Hanoverians  and 
Dutch  "Foremost  of  all,"  says  the  just-minded  Lord  Mahon, 
"  were  the  gallant  brigade  of  Irish  exiles."  It  was  this  defeat  of 
his  favorite  son  which  wrung  from  King  George  II.  the  oft-quoted 
malediction  on  the  laws  which  deprived  him  of  such  subjects. 

The  expedition  of  Prince  Charles  Edward  was  undertaken  and 
conducted  by  Irish  aid,  quite  as  much  as  by  French  or  Scottish. 
The  chief  parties  to  it,  besides  the  old  Marquis  of  Tullibardin* 
and  the  young  Duke  of  Perth,  were  the  Waterses,  father  and  son, 
Irish  bankers  at  Paris,  who  advanced  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  hvres  between  them;  Walsh,  an  Irish  merchant  at 
Kantz,  who  put  a  privateer  of  eighteen  guns  into  the  venture ; 
Sir  Thomas  Geraldine,  the  Pretender's  agent  at  Paris ;  Sir  Thomas 
Sheridan,  the  prince's  preceptor,  who  with  Colonels  O'Sullivan 
and  Lynch,  Captain  O'Neil,  and  other  officers  of  the  brigade, 
formed  the  staff,  on  which  Sir  John  McDonald,  a  Scottish  officei 
in  the  Spanish  service,  was  also  placed.  Fathers  Kelly  and 
O'Brien  volunteered  in  the  expedition.  On  the  22d  of  June, 
1746,  with  seven  friends,  the  prince  embarked  in  Walsh's  vessel, 
the  Doutelle,  at  St.  Nazaire,  on  the  Loire,  and  on  the  19th  of 
July  landed  on  the  northern  coast  of  Scotland,  near  Moidart. 
The  Scottish  chiefs,  little  consulted  or  considered  beforehand, 
came  slowly  and  dubiously  to  the  landing-place.  Under  their 
patriarchal  control  there  were  still  in  the  kingdom  about  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  and  about  one-twelfth  of  the  Scottish  popu- 
lation. Clanronald,  Cameron  of  Lochiel,  the  Laird  of  McLeod, 
and  a  few  others,  having  arrived,  the  royal  standard  was  unfurled 
on  the  19th  of  August,  at  Glenfinin,  where  that  evening  twelve 
hundred  men — the  entire  army  BO  far — were  formed  into  camp, 
under  the  orders  of  O'Sullivan.  From  that  day  until  the  day  of 
Cnlloden,  O'Sullivan  seems  to  have  maneuvered  the  prince's  for- 
ces.  At  Perth,  at  Edinburgh,  at  Preston,  at  Manchester,  at  Cul- 
loden,  he  took  command  in  the  field,  or  in  garrison ;  and  even 
after  the  sad  result,  he  adhered  to  his  sovereign's  son  with  an 
honorable  fidelity  which  defied  despair. 

Charles,  on  his  part,  placed  full  confidence  in  his  Irish  officers. 
In  his  proclamation  after  the  battle  of  Preston,  he  declared  it  WM 
ft 


626  POPULAR   HISTORY   OP   IRKL1KD. 

not  bis  intention  to  enforce  on  the  people  of  England,  Scotland 
or  Ireland,  "  a  religion  they  disliked."  In  a  subsequent  paper,  he 
asks,  "  Have  you  found  reason  to  love  and  cherish  your  govern- 
ors as  the  fathers  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ? 
Has  a  family  upon  whom  a  faction  unlawfully  bestowed  the  dia- 
dem of  a  rightful  prince,  retained  a  due  sense  of  so  great  a  trust 
and  favt>r  ? "  These  and  his  other  proclamations  betrayed  an 
Irish  pen ;  probably  Sir  Thomas  Sheridan's.  One  of  Charles's 
English  adherents,  Lord  Elcho,  who  kept  a  journal  of  the  cam- 
paign, notes,  complainingly,  the  Irish  influence  under  which  be 
acted.  "  The  prince  and  his  old  governor,  Sir  Thomas  Sheridan/ 
are  especially  objected  to,  and  the  "  Irish  favorites,"  are  censured 
in  a  body.  While  at  Edinburgh,  a  French  ship,  containing  some 
arms,  supplies,  and  "  Irish  officers,"  arrived ;  at  the  same  time 
efforts  were  made  to  recruit  for  the  prince  in  Ireland ;  bit  the 
agents  being  taken  in  some  cases,  the  channel  narrowly  watched, 
and  the  people  not  very  eager  to  join  the  service,  few  reeru~'ta 
were  obtained. 

The  Irish  in  France,  as  if  to  cover  the  inaction  of  their  country- 
men at  home,  strained  every  nerve.  The  Waterses  and  O'Brien 
of  Paris  were  liberal  bankers  to  the  expedition.  Into  their  hands 
James  "  exhausted  his  treasury  "  to  support  his  gallant  son.  At 
Fontainebleau,  on  the  23d  of  October,  Colonel  O'Brien,  on  the 
part  of  the  prince,  and  the  Marquis  D'Argeusson  for  Louis  XV., 
formed  a  treaty  of  "  friendship  and  alliance,"  one  of  the  clauses 
of  which  was,  that  certain  Irish  regiments,  and  other  French 
troops,  should  be  sent  to  sustain  the  expedition.  Under  Lord 
John  Drummond  a  thousand  men  were  shipped  from  Dunkirk, 
and  arrived  at  Montrose  in  the  Highlands  about  the  time  Charles 
had  penetrated  as  far  south  as  Manchester.  The  officers,  with 
the  prince,  here  refused  to  advance  on  London  with  so  small  a 
force ;  a  retreat  was  decided  on ;  the  sturdy  defence  of  Carlisle, 
and  victory  of  Falkirk,  checked  the  pursuit ;  but  the  overwhelm- 
ing force  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  compelled  them  to  evacu- 
aie  Edinburgh,  Perth,  and  Glasgow— operations  which  consumed 
February,  March,  and  the  first  half  of  April,  1746. 

The  next  plan  of  operations  seems  to  have  been  to  concentrate 
b.  the  western  Highlands,  wil  i  Inveiness  for  headquarters.  Tht 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  627 

town  Charles  easily  got,  but  Fort  George,  a  powerful  fortress, 
built  upon  the  site  of  the  oastle  where  Macbeth  was  said  to  have 
murdered  Duncan,  commanded  the  Lough.  Stapleton  and  hii 
Irish,  captured  it,  however,  as  well  as  the  neighboring  Fort  Au- 
gustus. Joined  by  some  Highlanders,  they  next  attempted  Fort 
William,  the  last  fortress  of  King  George  in  the  north,  but  on 
the  3d  of  April  were  recalled  to  the  main  body. 

To  cover  Inverness,  his  headquarters,  Charles  resolved  to 
give  battle.  The  ground  chosen,  flanked  by  the  river  Nairn, 
was  spotted  with  marsh  and  very  irregular ;  it  was  called  Cul- 
loden,  and  was  selected  by  O'Sullivan.  Brigadier  Stapleton  and 
Colonel  Kerr  reported  against  it  as  a  field  of  battle ;  but  Charles 
adopted  O'Sullivan's  opinion  of  its  fitness  for  Highland  warfare. 
When  the  preparations  for  battle  began,  "  many  voices  exclaimed, 
'  We'll  give  Cumberland  another  Fontenoy !' "  The  Jacobites 
were  placed  in  position  by  O'Sullivan,  "  at  once  their  adjutant 
and  quartermaster  general,"  and,  as  the  burghers  of  Preston 
thought,  "  a  very  likely  fellow."  He  formed  two  lines,  the  great 
clans  being  in  the  first,  the  Ogilvies,  Gordons,  and  Murrays; 
the  French  and  Irish  in  the  second.  Four  pieces  of  cannon 
flanked  each  whig,  and  four  occupied  the  centre.  Lord  George 
Murray  commanded  the  right  wing,  Lord  John  Drummond  the 
left,  and  Brigadier  Stapleton  the  reserve.  They  mustered  in  all 
less  than  five  thousand  men.  The  British  formed  in  three  lines, 
ten  thousand  strong,  with  two  guns  between  every  second  regi- 
ment of  the  first  and  second  line.  The  action  commenced  about 
noon  of  April  16th,  and  before  evening  half  the  troops  of  Prince 
Charles  lay  dead  on  the  field,  and  the  rest  were  hopelessly  bro- 
ken. The  retreat  was  pell-mell,  except  where  "  a  troop  of  the  Irish 
pickets,  by  a  spirited  fire,  checked  the  pursuit,  which  a  body  of 
dragoons  commenced  after  the  Macdonalds,  and  Lord  Lewis  Gor- 
don's regiments  did  similar  service."  Stapleton  conducted  the 
French  and  Irish  remnant  to  Inverness,  and  obtained  for  them 
by  capitulation  "  fair  quarter  and  honorable  treatment." 

The  unhappy  prince  remained  on  the  field  almost  to  the  last. 
"  It  required,"  says  M  r.  Chambers,  "  all  the  eloquence,  and  in- 
de«d  all  the  active  exertion,  of  O'Sullivan  to  make  Charles  quit 
the  field.  A  cornet  in  his  service,  wht  n  questioned  on  this  sub« 


628  frOPULAB   BISTORT   OF   IRELAND. 

ject  at  the  point  of  death,  declared  he  saw  O'Sullivan,  after  using 
entreaties  in  vain,  turn  the  head  of  the  prince's  horse  and  drag 
kirn  away." 

From  that  night  forth,  O'Sullivan,  O'Neil,  and  a  poor  sedan 
carrier  of  Edinburgh,  called  Burke,  accompanied  him  in  all  hia 
wan  ierings  and  adventures  among  the  Scottish  islands.  At  Long 
Island  they  were  obliged  to  part  company,  the  prince  proceeding 
aloue  with  Miss  Flora  McDonald.  He  had  not  long  left,  when  a 
French  cutter  hove  in  sight  and  took  off  O'Sullivan,  intending  to 
touch  at  another  point,  and  take  in  the  prince  and  OTTeiL  The 
name  night  she  was  blown  off  the  coast,  and  the  prince,  after  many 
other  adventures,  was  finally  taken  off  at  Badenoch,  on  the  15th 
of  September,  1746,  by  the  L'Heureux,  a  French  armed  vessel,  in 
which  Captain  Sheridan  (son  of  Sir  Thomas),  Mr.  O'Beirne,  a 
lieutenant  in  the  French  army,  "  and  two  other  gentlemen,"  had 
adventured  in  search  of  him.  Poor  O'Neil,  in  seeking  to  rejoin 
his  master,  was  taken  prisoner,  carried  to  London,  and  is  lost 
from  the  record.  O'Sullivan  reached  France  safely,  where,  with 
Stapleton,  Lynch,  and  the  Irish  and  Scotch  officers,  he  was  wel- 
comed and  honored  of  all  brave  men. 

Such  was  the  last  struggle  of  the  Stuarts.  For  years  after,  the 
popular  imagination  in  both  countries  clung  fondly  to  Prince 
Charles.  But  the  cause  was  dead.  As  if  to  bury  it  forever, 
Charles,  in  despair,  grew  dissipated  and  desponding.  In  1756, 
"the  British  Jacobites"  sent  Colonel  McNamara,  as  their  agent, 
to  induce  him  to  put  away  his  mistress,  Miss  Walsingham,  a  de- 
mand with  which  he  haughtily  refused  to  comply.  In  1766,  when 
James  III.  died  at  Avignon,  the  French  king  and  the  Pope  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  the  prince  by  the  title  of  Charles  III. 
When  the  latter  died,  in  1788,  at  Rome,  Cardinal  York  content*] 
himself  with  having  a  medal  struck,  with  the  inscription  "  Henri. 
CUB  IX.,  Anglic  Rex."  He  was  the  last  of  the  Stuarta. 

Notwithstanding  the  utter  defeat  of  the  Scottish  expedition, 
and  the  scatterment  of  the  surviving  companies  of  the  brigade  on 
all  sorts  of  service  from  Canada  to  India,  there  were  many  of  the 
exiled  Irish  in  France,  who  did  not  yet  despair  of  a  national  in- 
Burreotion  ngidnat  the  house  of  Hanover.  In  the  year  1769,  an 
Imp  ising  expedition  was  fitted  out  at  Brest  under  Admiral  Co* 


*OPULAB  HISTORY    OF   IRELAMD.  629 

flans,  and  another  at  Dunkirk,  under  Commodore  Thurot,  whose 
real  name  was  O'Farrell.  The  former,  soon  after  putting  to  sea, 
•was  encountered  at  Quiberon  by  th«  English  under  Hawke,  and 
completely  defeated ;  but  the  latte  entered  the  British  channel 
Unopposed,  and  proceeded  to  the  appointed  rendezvous.  While 
cruising  in  search  of  Conflaus,  the  autumnal  equinox  drove  the 
intrepid  Thurot  into  the  Northern  ocean,  and  compelled  him  to 
winter  among  the  frozen  friths  of  Norway  and  the  Orkneys.  One 
of  his  five  frigates  returned  to  France,  another  was  never  heard 
of,  but  with  the  remaining  three  he  emerged  from  the  Scottish 
Islands,  and  entered  Loch  Foyle  early  in  1760.  He  did  not, 
however,  attempt  a  landing  at  Derry,  but  appeared  suddenly  be- 
fore Carrickfergus,  on  the  21st  of  February,  and  demanded  its 
surrender.  Placing  himself  at  the  head  of  his  marines  and  sail- 
ors, he  attacked  the  town,  which,  after  a  brave  resistance  by  the 
commandant,  Colonel  Jennings,  he  took  by  assault.  Here,  for  the 
first  time,  this  earlier  Paul  Jones  heard  of  the  defeat  of  his  admi- 
ral ;  after  levying  contributions  on  the  rich  burgesses  and  pro- 
prietors of  Carrickfergus  and  Belfast,  he  again  put  to  sea.  Hia 
ships,  battered  by  the  wintry  storms  which  they  had  undergone 
in  northern  latitudes,  fell  in  near  the  Isle  of  Man  with  three  Eng- 
lish frigates,  just  out  of  port,  under  Commodore  Elliott.  A  gal- 
lant action  ensued,  in  which  Thurot,  or  O'Farrell,  and  three  hun- 
dred of  his  men  were  killed.  The  survivors  struck  to  the  victors, 
and  the  French  ships  were  towed  in  a  sinking  state,  into  the  port 
of  Ramsay. 

The  life  thus  lost  in  the  joint  service  of  France  and  Ireland, 
was  a  life  illustrative  of  the  Irish  refugee  class  among  whom  he 
became  a  leader.  Left  an  orphan  in  childhood,  O'Farrell,  though 
of  a  good  family,  had  been  bred  in  France  in  so  menial  a  condition 
that  he  first  visited  England  as  a  domestic  servant.  From  that 
condition  he  rose  to  be  a  dexterous  and  successful  captain  in  the 
contraband  trade,  so  extensive  in  those  times.  In  this  capacity 
he  visited  almost  every  port  of  either  channel,  acquiring  that  ac- 
curate knowledge  which  added  to  his  admitted  bravery  and 
capacity,  placed  him  at  length  at  the  head  of  a  French  squadron. 
"  Throughout  the  expedition,"  says  Lord  Mahon,  "  the  honor  and 
humanity  of  this  brave  adventurer  are  warmly  acknowledged  bj 
53* 


630  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

his  enemies.  "  He  fought  his  ship,"  according  to  the  same  author, 
"  until  the  hold  was  almost  filled  with  water,  and  the  deck  COT" 
eued  with  dead  bodies." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REIGN  OF    GEORGE  H.  (CONCLUDED.) MALONE*8  LEADERSHIP. 

THE  Earl  of  Harrington,  afterwards,  Duke  of  Devonshire,  suc- 
ceeded Lord  Chesterfield  in  the  government,  in  1Y46.  He  waa 
provided  with  a  prime  minister  in  the  person  of  the  new  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  Dr.  George  Stone,  whose  character,  if  he  waa 
not  exceedingly  calumniated  by  his  cotemporaries,  might  be  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  worst  politicians  of  the  worst  ages  of  Europe. 
Originally,  the  son  of  the  jailor  of  Winchester,  he  had  risen  by 
dint  of  talents,  and  audacity,  to  receive  from  the  hands  of  hia 
sovereign,  the  illustrious  dignity  of  Primate  of  Ireland.  But  even 
in  this  exalted  office,  the  abominable  vices  of  his  youth  accom- 
panied him.  His  house  at  Leixlip,  was  at  once  a  tavern  and  a 
brothel,  and  crimes  which  are  nameless,  were  said  to  be  habitual 
under  his  roof.  "  May  the  importation  of  Ganymedes  into  Ire- 
land, be  soon  discontinued,"  was  the  public  toast,  which  disguised 
under  the  transparent  gauze  of  a  mythological  allusion,  the  in- 
famies of  which  ho  was  believed  to  be  the  patron.  The  prurient 
page  of  Churchill,  was  not  quite  so  scrupulous,  and  the  readers  of 
the  satire  entitled  "  The  Times,"  will  need  no  further  key  to  the 
horrible  charges  commonly  received  on  both  sides  of  the  channel, 
against  Primate  Stone. 

The  viceroyalty  of  In-hind,  which  had  become  an  object  of 
ambition  to  the  first  men  in  the  empire,  was  warmly  contested  by 
the  Earl  of  Harrington  and  the  Duke  of  Dorset.  The  former, 
through  his  Stanhope  influence  and  connections,  prevailed  over 
his  rival,  and  arrived  in  Ireland  warmly  recommended  by  the 
popular  Chesterfield.  During  his  administration,  Primate  Stone, 
proceeding  from  one  extreme  to  another,  first  put  forward  th« 
dangerous  theory,  that  all  surplus  revenue  belonged  of  right  to 


FOfULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  631 

the  crown,  and  might  be  paid  over  by  the  Vice-Treasurers,  to 
his  majesty's  order,  without  authority  of  Parliament.  At  this 
period,  notwithstanding,  the  vicious  system  of  her  land  tenures, 
and  her  recent  losses  by  emigration,  Ireland  found  herself  in 
possession  of  a  considerable  surplus  revenue. 

Like  wounds  and  bruises  in  a  healthy  body,  the  sufferings  and 
deprivations  of  the  population  rapidly  disappeared  under  the  ap- 
pearance even  of  improvement  in  the  government.  The  observant 
Chesterfield,  who  continued  through  life  warmly  attached  to  the 
country  in  which  his  name  was  remembered  with  so  much  affec- 
tion, expresses  to  his  friend  Chevenix,  Bishop  of  "Waterford,  in 
1751,  his  satisfaction  at  hearing  "that  Ireland  improves  daily, 
and  that  a  spirit  of  industry  spreads  itself,  to  the  great  increase 
of  trade  and  manufactures."  This  new-born  prosperity  the  pri- 
mate and  politicians  of  his  school  would  have  met  by  an  annual 
depletion  of  the  treasury,  instead  of  assisting  its  march  by  the 
reduction  of  taxes,  and  the  promotion  of  necessary  public  works. 
The  surplus  was  naturally  regarded,  by  the  Patriot  party,  in  the 
light  of  so  much  national  capital ;  they  looked  upon  it  as  an  im. 
provement  fund,  for  the  construction  of  canals,  highways  and 
breakwaters,  for  the  encouragement  of  the  linen  and  other  manu- 
factures, and  for  the  adornment  of  the  capital  with  edifices  worthy 
of  the  chief  city  of  a  flourishing  kingdom. 

The  leader  of  the  Patriot  party,  Anthony  Malone,  was  compared 
at  this  period,  by  an  excellent  authority,  to  "  a  great  sea  in  a 
calm."  He  was  considered,  even  by  the  fastidious  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  the  equal,  in  oratory,  of  Chatham  and  Mansfield.  He  seems 
to  have  at  all  times,  however,  sunk  the  mere  orator  in  the  states- 
man, and  to  have  used  his  great  powers  of  argument  even  more 
in  council,  than  in  the  arena.  His  position  at  the  bar,  as  Prime 
Sergeant,  by  which  he  took  precedence  even  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  gave  great  weight  to  his  opinions  on  all  questions  of 
constitutional  law.  The  roystering  country  gentlemen,  who 
troubled  their  heads  but  little  with  anything  besides  dogs  and 
horses,  pistols  and  claret,  felt  secure  in  their  new-fledged  patriot- 
ism, under  the  broad  aegis  of  the  law  extended  over  them  by 
the  most  eminent  lawyer  of  his  age.  The  speaker  of  the  Commons, 
Henry  Boyle,  aided  and  assisted  Malone,  and  when  left  free  to  oom 


632  POPULAR   BISTORT   Of   IKELAKD. 

bat  OIL  the  floor,  his  high  spirit  and  great  fortune  gave  additional 
force  to  his  example  and  confidence  to  his  followers.  Both  were 
t  en  too  cautious  to  allow  their  adversaries  any  parliamentary 
advantage  over  them,  but  not  so  their  intrepid  coadjutor  out  of 
doors,  Apothecary  Lucas.  He,  like  Swift,  rising  from  local  and 
municipal  grievances  to  questions  affecting  the  constitution  of 
Parliament  itself,  was  in  174$,  against  all  the  efforts  of  his  frienda 
in  the  llouse  of  Commons  declared  by  the  majority  of  that  house 
to  be,  "  an  enemy  to  his  country,"  and  a  reward  was  accordingly 
Issued  for  his  apprehension.  For  a  tune  he  was  compelled  to 
retire  to  England;  but  he  returned,  to  celebrate  in  his  Freeman's 
Journal  the  humiliation  of  the  primate,  and  the  defeat  of  the 
policy  both  of  Lord  Harrington,  and  his  successor  the  Duke  of 
Dorset. 

This  nobleman,  resolved  to  cast  his  predecessor  into  the  shade 
by  the  brilliancy  of  his  success,  proceeded  to  take  vigorous  meas- 
ures against  the  patriots.  In  his  first  speech  to  Parliament  in 
1751,  he  informed  them  Ms  majesty  "  consented "  to  the  appro- 
priation of  the  surplus  revenue,  by  the  House  of  Commons,  and  a 
clause  was  added  to  the  annual  supply  bill  in  the  English  council* 
containing  the  same  obnoxious  word,  "  consent."  On  this  occa- 
sion, not  feeling  themselves  strong  enough  to  throw  out  the  bill, 
and  there  being  no  alternative  but  rejection  or  acceptance;  the 
Patriots  permitted  it  to  pass  under  protest.  But  the  next  session, 
when  a  similar  addition  was  made,  the  Commons  rejected  the 
supply  bill  altogether,  by  a  majority  of  122  to  117.  This  was  a 
measure  of  almost  revolutionary  consequence,  since  it  left  every 
branch  of  the  public  service  unprovided  for,  for  the  ensuing 
twelve  months. 

Both  the  advisers  of  the  king  in  England,  and  the  viceroy  in 
Ireland,  seemed  by  their  insane  conduct  as  if  they  desired  to  pro. 
voke  such  a  collision.  Malone's  patent  of  precedence  as  Prime 
Sergeant  was  canceled ;  the  speaker  was  dismissed  from  the  Privy 
Council,  and  the  surplus  revenue  was  withdrawn  from  the  vice- 
treasurer,  by  a  king's  letter.  The  indignation  of  the  Dubliners  at 
these  outrages  rose  to  the  utmost  pitch.  Stone,  Healy,  Hutchin- 
•on,  and  others  of  the  Castle  party,  were  waylaid  and  menaced 
In  the  streets  and  the  viceroy  himself  hooted  wherever  he  ap- 


POPULAR  HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  633 

peared.  Had  the  popular  leaders  been  men  less  cautious,  or  less 
influential,  the  year  1753  might  have  witnessed  a  violent  revolu- 
tionary movement.  But  they  planted  themselves  on  the  authority 
of  the  constitution,  they  united  boldness  with  prudence,  and  they 
triumphed.  The  primate  and  his  creatures  raised  against  them 
in  vain  the  cuckoo  cry  of  disloyalty,  both  in  Dublin  and  London. 
The  English  Whigs,  long  engaged  themselves  in  a  similar  strug- 
gle with  the  overgrown  power  of  the  crown,  sympathized  with 
the  Irish  opposition,  and  defended  their  motives  both  in  society 
and  in  Parliament.  The  enemies  of  the  Dorset  family  as  naturally 
took  their  part,  and  the  duke  himself  was  obliged  to  go  over  to 
protect  his  interest  at  court,  leaving  the  odious  primate,  as  one 
of  the  Lords-Justices.  At  his  departure  his  guards  were  hardly 
able  to  protect  him  from  the  fury  of  the  populace,  to  that  water- 
Bide  to  which  Chesterfield  had  walked  on  foot,  seven  years  before, 
amid  the  benedictions  of  the  same  people. 

The  Patriots  had  at  this  crisis  a  great  addition  to  their  strength, 
in  the  accession  of  James,  the  twentieth  Earl  of  Kildare,  succes. 
eively  Marquis  and  Duke  of  Leinster.  This  nobleman,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  married  to  the  beautiful  Emily  Lennox,  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  followed  Dorset  to  England,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  king,  with  his  own  hand,  one  of  the  boldest  memo- 
rials ever  addressed  to  a  sovereign  by  a  subject.  After  reciting  the 
past  services  of  his  family  in  maintaining  the  imperial  connection, 
he  declared  himself  the  organ  of  several  thousands  of  his  majesty's 
liege  subjects,  "  as  well  the  nobles  as  the  clergy,  the  gentry,  and 
the  commonalty  of  the  kingdom.  He  dwells  on  the  peculation 
and  extravagance  of  the  administration,  under  "  the  Duumvirate  " 
of  the  viceroy  and  the  primate,  which  he  compares  with  the 
league  of  Strafford  and  Laud.  He  denounces  more  especially 
Lord  George  Sackville,  son  to  Dorset,  for  his  intermeddling  in 
every  branch  of  administration.  He  speaks  of  Dr.  Stone  as  "  a 
greedy  churchman,  who  affects  to  b«  a  second  Wolsey  in  the 
senate."  This  high-toned  memorial  struck  with  astonishment  the 
English  ministers,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  hint,  that,  in  a  reign 
leas  merciful,  it  would  not  have  passed  with  impunity.  In  Ire- 
land it  raised  the  hardy  earl  to  the  pinnacle  of  popular  favor. 
A  medal  waa  struck  in  his  honor,  representing  him  guarding  a 


634  1»OPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRKLAHD. 

heap  of  treasure  with  u  drawn  sword,  and  the  motto — "  Touch 
not,  says  Kildare."  At  the  opening  of  the  next  parliament,  he 
was  a  full  hour  making  his  way  among  the  enthusiastic  crowd, 
from  his  house  in  Kildare  street  to  College  Green.  In  little  more 
than  a  year,  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  whom  English  ministers  had  in 
vain  endeavored  to  sustain,  was  removed,  and  the  primate,  by  his 
majesty's  orders,  was  struck  from  the  list  of  privy  councillors. 

Lord  Harrington,  now  Duke  of  Devonshire,  replaced  the  dis- 
graced and  defeated  Dorset,  and  at  once  surroui.4ed  himself  with 
advisers  from  the  ranks  of  the  opposition.  The  Earl  of  Kildare 
was  his  personal  and  political  friend,  and  his  first  visit,  on  arriv- 
ing, was  paid  at  Carton.  The  speaker,  Mr.  Boyle,  the  Earl  of 
Bessborough,  head  of  the  popular  family  of  the  Ponsonbys,  and 
Mr.  Malone,  were  called  to  the  privy  council.  Lucas,  exalted 
rather  than  injured  by  years  of  exile,  was  elected  one  of  the 
members  for  the  city  of  Dublin,  and  the  whole  face  of  affairs 
promised  a  complete  and  salutaiy  change  of  administration. 

After  a  year  in  office,  Devonshire  returned  to  England  in  ill- 
health,  leaving  Lord  Kildare  as  one  of  the  Justices,  an  office  which 
he  continued  to  fill,  till  the  arrival  in  September,  1756,  of  John, 
fourth  Duke  of  Bedford,  as  Lord  Lieutenant,  with  Mr.  Rigby 
"  a  good  four  bottle  man,"  as  chief  secretary. 

The  instructions  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  dictated  by  the 
genius  and  wisdom  of  Chatham,  were,  to  employ  "  all  softening 
and  healing  arts  of  government."  His  own  desire,  as  a  Whig,  at 
the  head  of  the  Whig  families  of  England,  was  to  unite  and  con- 
solidate the  same  party  in  Ireland,  so  as  to  make  them  a  powerful 
auxiliary  force  to  the  English  Whigs.  Consistently  with  this 
design,  he  wished  well  to  the  country  he  was  sent  to  rule,  and 
was  sincerely  desirous  of  promoting  measures  of  toleration.  But 
he  found  the  Patriots  distracted  by  success,  and  disorganized  by 
the  possession  of  power.  The  speaker  who  had  straggled  so  suc- 
cessfully against  his  predecessors,  was  in  the  Upper  House  M 
Earl  of  Shannon,  and  the  chair  of  the  Commons  was  filled  by 
John  Ponsonby,  of  the  Bessborough  family.  The  Ponsonby 
following,  and  the  Earl  of  Kildare's  friends  were  at  this  period 
almost  as  much  divided  from  each  other  in  their  views  of  public 
policy,  as  either  wore  fronr.  the  party  of  the  primate.  The  Poor 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OP    IRELAND.  635 

•onby  party,  still  directed  by  Malone,  wished  to  follow  up  the 
recent  victory  on  the  money  bills,  by  a  measure  of  Catholic 
relief,  a  tax  upon  absentees,  and  a  reduction  of  the  pension  list, 
shamelessly  burthened  beyond  all  former  proportion.  Lord  Kil- 
dare  and  his  friends  were  not  then  prepared  to  go  such  lengths, 
though  that  high  spirited  nobleman  afterwards  came  into  most  of 
these  measures.  After  endeavoring  in  vain  to  unite  these  two 
interests,  the  Duke  of  Bedford  found,  or  fancied  himself  com- 
pelled, in  order  to  secure  a  parliamentary  majority,  to  listen  to 
the  overtures  of  the  obsequious  primate,  to  restore  him  to  the 
council,  and  to  leave  him  together  with  his  old  enemy,  Lord  Shan- 
non,  in  the  situation  of  joint  administrators,  during  his  journey 
to  England,  in  1758.  The  Earl  of  Kildare,  it  should  be  remarked, 
firmly  refused  to  be  associated  with  Stone,  on  any  terms,  or  for 
any  time,  long  or  short. 

The  closing  of  this  important  reign  is  notable  for  the  first  Catho- 
lic meeting  held  since  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.  In  the  spring 
of  1757,  four  hundred  respectable  gentlemen  attended  by  mutual 
agreement,  at  Dublin,  among  whom  were  Lords  Devlin,  Taafe, 
and  Fingal,  the  antiquary  Charles  O'Conor,  of  Balanagar,  the 
historian  of  the  Civil  Wars,  Dr.  Curry,  and  Mr.  Wyse,  a  merchant 
of  Waterford,  the  ancestor  of  a  still  better  known  laborer  in  the 
same  cause.  The  then  recent  persecution  of  Mr.  Saul,  a  Dublin 
merchant  of  their  faith,  for  having  harbored  a  young  lady  whose 
friends  wished  to  coerce  her  into  a  change  of  religion,  gave  par- 
ticular significance  to  this  assembly.  It  is  true  the  proceedings 
were  characterized  by  caution  amounting  almost  to  timidity,  but 
the  unanimous  declaration  of  their  loyal  attachment  to  the  throne, 
at  a  moment  when  French  invasion  was  imminent,  produced  the 
best  effect,  and  greatly  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  Clan- 
brassils,  Ponsonbys,  Malones,  Dalys,  and  other  advocates  of  an 
enlarged  toleration  in  both  houses.  It  is  true  no  immediate  legis- 
lation followed,  but  the  way  was  prepared  for  future  ameliora- 
tions by  the  discretion  and  tact  of  the  Catholic  delegates  of  1757. 
They  were  thenceforth  allowed  at  least  the  right  of  meeting  and 
petitioning,  of  whinh  they  had  long  been  deprived,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  which  marks  the  first  step  in  their  gradual  recovery  of 
their  wvil  liberties. 


036  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRELAND. 

In  1759,  a  rumor  broke  out  in  Dublin  that  a  legislative  union 
was  in  contemplation  by  the  primate  and  his  faction.  On  the  8d 
of  December,  the  citizens  rose  en  masse,  and  surrounded  the  house* 
of  parliament.  They  stopped  the  carriages  of  members,  and 
obliged  them  to  swear  opposition  to  such  a  measure.  Some  of  thw 
Protestant  bishops,  and  the  Lord  Chancellor,  were  roughly  handled ; 
i  privy  councillor  was  thrown  into  the  river ;  the  attorney  gen- 
eral was  wounded  and  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  college ;  Lord 
Inchiquin  was  al-used  till  he  said  his  name  was  O'Brien,  when 
the  rage  of  the  people  "  was  turned  into  acclamations.  The 
spoaker,  Mr.  Ponsonby,  and  the  chief  secretary,  Mr.  Rigby,  had 
to  appear  in  the  porch  of  the  House  of  Commons,  solemnly  to 
assure  the  citizens  that  no  union  was  dreamed  of,  and  if  it  was  pro- 
posed, that  they  would  be  the  first  to  resist  it  Public  spirit  had 
evidently  grown  bold  and  confident,  and  we  can  well  believe 
Secretary  Rijrby  when  he  writes  to  the  elder  Pitt,  that  "the 

»•  O     J 

mob "  declared,  "  since  they  have  no  chance  of  numbers  in  the 
house,  they  must  have  recourse  to  numbers  out  of  doors." 


CHAPTER  V. 

ACCESSION    OF   OBOROE   III. — FLOOD'S    LEADERSHIP.— OOTBXWIAL 
PARLIAMENTS   ESTABLISHED. 

GBOROE  III.,  grandson  of  the  late  king,  commenced,  in  Octo- 
oer,  1760,  at  the  age  of  two  and  twenty,  the  longest  reign  in 
British  history.  Including  the  period  of  the  regency,  he  reigned 
over  his  empire  nearly  sixty  years, — an  extraordinary  term  of 
royal  power,  and  quite  as  extraordinary  for  ita  events  as  for  iU 
extreme  length. 

The  great  movement  of  the  Irish  mind,  at  the  beginning  of 
this  reign,  was  the  limitation  of  the  duration  of  parliament, 
hitherto  elected  for  the  king's  life.  This  reform,  long  advocated 
out  of  doors,  and  by  the  more  progressive  members  within  the 
honse,  wns  reserved  for  the  new  parliament  under  the  new  reign. 
To  this  parliament  were  returned  several  men  of  great  promts^ 


POPULAR    HI8TORT    OF   IRELAND.  637 

inen  of  a  new  generation,  nurtured  in  the  school  of  Swift  and  Ma- 
lone,  but  going  even  beyond  their  masters  in  their  determination 
to  liberate  the  legislature  of  their  country  from  the  undue  influ- 
ence of  the  crown  and  the  castle.  Among  those  new  members 
were  three  destined  to  national  celebrity,  Dr.  Lucas,  Mr.  Hussey 
Burgh,  and  Mr.  Dennis  Bowes  Daly ;  and  one  destined  to  univer- 
sal reputation  —  Henry  Flood.  This  gentleman,  the  son  of  a 
former  Chief  Justice,  intermarried  into  the  powerful  oligarchic  al 
family  of  the  Beresfords,  was  only  in  his  28th  year  when  first 
elected  member  for  Kilkenny ;  but,  in  point  of  genius  and  acquire- 
ments, he  was  even  then  the  first  man  in  Ireland,  and  one  of  the 
first  in  the  empire.  For  a  session  or  two  he  silently  observed 
the  forms  of  the  house,  preparing  himself  for  the  great  contest  to 
come ;  but  when  at  last  he  obtained  the  ear  of  his  party  he  waa 
heard  to  some  purpose.  Though  far  from  advocating  extreme 
measures,  lie  had  abundant  boldness ;  he  was  not  open  to  the  ob- 
jection leveled  against  the  leader  of  the  past  generation,  Mr. 
Malone,  of  whom  Grattan  said,  "  he  was  a  colony-bred  man,  and 
he  feared  to  bring  down  England  upon  Ireland," 

The  Duke  of  Bedford  vacated  the  viceroyalty  in  1761,  and 
Lord  Halifax  took  his  place.  In  the  first  parliamentary  session, 
Dr.  Lucas  introduced  his  resolutions  limiting  the  duration  of  par- 
liament to  seven  years,  a  project  which  Flood  afterwards  adopted 
and  mainly  contributed  to  carry.  The  heads  of  the  bill  embody- 
ing these  resolutions  were  transmitted  to  London  by  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant,  but  never  returned.  In  1763,  under  the  government 
of  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  similar  resolutions  were  introduced 
and  carried,  but  a  similar  fate  awaited  them.  Again  they  were 
passed,  and  again  rejected,  the  popular  dissatisfaction  rising 
higher  and  higher  with  every  delay  of  the  reform.  At  length,  in 
the  session  of  1767,  "the  Septennial  Bill,"  as  it  was  called,  was 
returned  from  England,  changed  to  octennial,  and  with  this  alter- 
ation it  passed  into  law,  in  February,  1768.  A  new  parliament 
the  same  year  was  elected  under  the  new  act,  to  which  all  the 
friends  of  the  measure  were  triumphantly  returned.  The  faithful 
Lucas,  however,  survived  his  success  little  better  than  two  years ; 
be  died  amid  the  very  sincere  regrets  of  all  men  who  wet-e  not  th« 
enemies  of  their  country.  At  his  funeral  the  pall  was  borne  by 
64 


638  POPULAR    HISTOBT    OF    IRELAND. 

the  Marquis  of  Kildire,  Lord  Charlemont,  Mr.  Flood,  Mr. 
Burgh,  Sir  Lucius  O'Brien  and  Mr.  Ponsonby. 

Lord  Halifax,  and  his  chief  secretary,  Mr.  Hamilton  (known 
to  us  as  "  the  single-speech  Hamilton, "  of  literary  history),  re- 
ceived very  graciously  the  loyal  addresses  presented  by  the  Catho- 
lics, soon  after  his  majesty's  accession.  In  a  speech  from  the 
throne,  the  viceroy  proposed,  but  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  pro- 
position, to  raise  six  regiments  of  Catholics,  under  their  own 
officers,  to  be  taken  into  the  service  of  Portugal,  the  ally  of  Great 
Britain.  His  administration  was  otherwise  remarkable  neither 
for  its  length  nor  its  importance ;  nor  is  there  anything  else  of 
consequence  to  be  mentioned  of  his  lordship,  except  that  hia 
nephew,  and  chief  secretary,  had  the  honor  to  have  Edmund 
Burke  for  his  private  secretary,  and  the  misfortune  to  offend  him. 

During  the  government  of  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  and  his 
successor,  Lord  Townsend  (appointed  in  1768),  the  Patriot  party 
contended  on  the  ground  of  rendering  the  judges  independent, 
diminishing  the  pension  list,  and  modifying  the  law  of  Poynings, 
requiring  heads  of  bills  to  be  sent  into  England,  and  certified  by 
both  Privy  Councils,  before  they  could  be  passed  upon  by  the  legis- 
lature. The  question  of  supply,  and  that  of  the  duration  of 
Parliament,  being  settled,  these  reforms  were  the  next  objects  of 
exertion.  When  we  know  that  the  late  king's  mistresses,  the 
Queen  Dowager  of  Prussia,  Prince  Ferdinand,  and  other  connec- 
tions of  the  royal  family,  equally  alien  to  the  country,  were  pen- 
sioners to  the  amount  of  thousands  of  pounds  annually  on  the 
Irish  establishment,  we  can  understand  more  clearly  the  bitterness 
of  the  battle  Mr.  Flood  and  his  colleagues  were  called  upon  to 
fight  in  assailing  the  old  system.  But  they  fought  it  resolutely 
snd  perseveringly.  Death  had  removed  their  most  unscrupulous 
enemy,  Primate  Stone,  during  the  Hertford  administration,  and 
the  improved  tone  and  temper  of  public  opinion  would  not  toler- 
ate any  attempt  to  raise  up  a  successor  of  similar  character. 
Lord  Townsend,  an  old  campaigner  and  lion  vivant,  was  expressly 
chosen  as  most  capable  of  restoring  the  old  system  of  government  by 
closeting  and  corruption,  but  he  found  the  Ireland  of  his  day  very 
materially  altered  from  the  defenceless  province,  which  Stone  and 
Dorset  had  attempted  to  cajole  or  to  coerce,  twenty  yeara  before, 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAKD.  639 

The  Parliament  of  1769 — the  first  limited  Parliament  which 
Ireland  had  seen  since  the  revolution — proved,  in  most  repecta, 
worthy  of  the  expectations  formed  of  it.  John  Ponsonby  waa 
chosen  speaker,  and  Flood  regarded,  around  him,  well-filled 
benches  and  cheering  countenances.  1  he  usual  supply  bill  waa 
passed  and  sent  up  to  the  castle,  but  on  its  return  from  England 
was  found  to  be  altered — 15,000  men,  among  other  changes,  being 
charged  to  the  Irish  military  establishment  instead  of  12,000,  as 
formerly.  The  Commons  resolute  to  assert  their  rights,  threw 
out  the  bill,  as  had  been  done  in  1753,  and  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
protesting  in  the  House  of  Lords  against  their  conduct,  ordered 
them  to  be  prorogued.  Prorogation  followed  prorogation,  till 
February,  1771,  the  interval  being  occupied  in  closeting  and 
coquetting  with  members  of  the  opposition,  in  the  creation  of  new 
places,  and  the  disposal  of  them  to  the  relatives  of  those  capable 
of  being  bought.  No  one  was  surprised,  when  the  houses  reas- 
sembled, to  find  that  a  bare  majority  of  the  Commons  voted  a 
fulsome  address  of  confidence  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  But  this 
address,  speaker  Ponsonby  indignantly  refused  to  present.  He 
preferred  resignation  to  disgrace,  and  great  was  the  amazement 
and  indignation  when  his  friend,  Mr.  Perry,  elected  by  a  bare 
majority,  consented  to  take  the  post — no  longer  a  post  of  honor. 
In  justice  to  Mr.  Perry,  however,  it  must  be  added  that  in  the 
chair  as  on  the  floor  of  Parliament,  he  still  continued  the  patriot 
— that  if  he  advanced  his  own  fortunes,  it  was  not  at  the  expense 
of  the  country — that  some  of  the  best  measures  passed  by  this 
and  the  subsequent  Parliament,  owed  their  final  success,  if  not 
their  first  suggestion,  to  his  far-seeing  sagacity. 

The  methods  taken  by  Lord  Townsend  to  effect  his  ends,  not 
less  than  those  ends  themselves,  aroused  the  spirit,  and  combined 
the  ranks  of  the  Irish  opposition.  The  press  of  Dublin  teemed 
with  philippics  and  satires,  upon  his  creatures  and  himself.  The 
wit,  the  scholarship,  the  elegant  fancy,  the  irresistible  torrent  of 
eloquence,  as  well  as  the  popular  enthusiasm,  were  against  him, 
»nd  in  1772,  borne  down  by  these  combined  forces,  he  confessed 
his  failure  by  resigning  the  sword  of  state  into-  the  hands  of  Lord 
Harcourt. 

The  new  viceroy,  according  to  custom,  began  his  reign  by  taking 


640  POPCLAB   HI8IOBT    0* 


an  exactly  opposite  course  to  his  predecessor,  and  ended  it  by 
falling  into  nearly  the  same  errors  and  abuses.  He  suggested  an 
Absentee-tax,  which  was  introduced  by  Flood,  but  rejected  through 
the  preponderating  influence  of  the  landed  aristocracy.  In  pre- 
paring the  tables  of  expenditure,  he  had  caused  arrears  amounting 
to  £265,000,  and  an  annual  increase  of  £100,000,  to  be  added  to 
the  estimates.  Moreover,  his  supply  bill  was  discovered,  at  the 
second  reading,  to  extend  over  two  years  instead  of  one  —  a  dis- 
covery which  occasioned  the  greatest  indignation.  Flood  raised 
his  powerful  voice  in  warning,  not  unmingled  with  menace  ; 
Burgh  declared,  that  if  any  member  should  again  bring  in  such  a 
bill,  he  would  himself  move  his  expulsion  from  the  House  ;  while 
George  Ogle,  member  for  Wexford,  proposed  that  the  bill  itself 
should  be  burned  before  -the  porch,  by  the  common  hangman. 
He  was  reminded  that  the  instrument  bore  the  great  seal  ;  to 
which  he  boldly  answered,  that  the  seal  would  help  to  make  it 
burn  the  better.  It  was  not  thought  politic  to  take  notice  of  thia 
revolutionary  retort. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

KLui.I/8  LEADERSHIP. 8TATK  OF  TH*  COUNTRY 

1760  AND  1776. 

ENGLAND  was  engaged  in  two  great  ware  during  the  period  of 
Flood's  supremacy  in  the  Irish  parliament — the  seven  years'  war, 
concluded  by  the  peace  of  Paris  in  17  63,  and  the  American  war, 
concluded  by  the  treaty  of  Versailles,  in  1788.  To  each  of  these 
Mars  Ireland  was  the  second  largest  contributor  both  aa  to  men 
4i  d  money;  and  by  both  she  was  the  severest  sufferer,  in  her 
manufactures,  her  provision  trade  and  her  general  prosperity. 
While  army  contracts  and  all  sorts  of  military  and  naval  expen- 
diture in  a  varietyof  ways  returned  to  the  people  of  England  the 
produce  of  their  taxes,  the  Irish  had  no  such  compensation  for 
the  burdens  imposed  on  their  more  limited  resourced.  The  natu- 
ral result  was,  that  that  incipient  prosperity  which  Chesterfield 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND.  641 

hail 5d  with  pleasure  in  17ol,  was  arrested  in  its  growth,  and  fears 
began  to  be  seriously  entertained  that  the  country  would  be 
driven  back  to  the  lamentable  condition  from  which  it  had  slowly 
and  laboriously  emerged  during  the  reign  of  George  II. 

The  absence  of  employment  in  the  towns  threw  the  laboring 
classes  more  and  more  upon  the  soil  for  sustenance,  while  the 
landlord  legislation  of  the  period  threw  them  as  helplessly  back 
upon  other  pursuits  than  agriculture.  Agrarian  injustice  was  en- 
countered by  conspiracy,  and  for  the  first  time  in  these  pages,  we 
have  to  record  the  introduction  of  the  diabolical  machinery  of 
secret  oath-bound  association  among  the  Irish  peasantry.  Of  the 
first  of  these  combinations  in  the  southern  counties,  a  cotempo- 
rary  writer  gives  the  following  account :  "  Some  landlords  iu 
Muuster,"  he  says,  "  have  let  their  lands  to  cotters  far  above  their 
value,  and,  to  lighten  their  burden,  allowed  commonange  to  their 
tenants  by  way  of  recompense:  afterwards,  in  despite  of  all 
equity,  contrary  to  all  compacts,  the  landlords  enclosed  these 
commons,  and  precluded  their  unhappy  tenants  from  the  only 
means  of  making  their  bargains  tolerable."  The  peasantry  of 
Waterford,  Cork,  and  other  southern  counties  met  in  tumultuous 
crowds,  and  demolished  the  new  enclosures.  The  oligarchical 
majority  took  their  usual  cue  on  such  occasions:  they  pronounced, 
at  once,  that  the  cause  of  the  riots  was  "  treason  against  the 
state ; "  they  even  obtained  a  select  committee  to  "  inquire  into 
the  cause  and  progress  of  the  Popish  insurrection  in  Munster." 
Although  the  London  Gazette,  on  the  authority  of  royal  commis- 
sioners, declared  that  the  rioters  "  consisted  indiscriminately  ot 
persons  of  different  persuasions,"  the  Castle  party  would  have  it 
"  another  Popish  plot."  Even  Dr.  Lucas  was  carried  away  by  the 
passions  of  the  honr,  and  declaimed  against  all  lenity,  as  coward- 
ly and  criminal. 

A  large  military  force,  under  the  Marquis  of  Drogheda,  was 
accordingly  despatched  to  the  suuth.  The  marquis  fixed  hia 
headquarters  at  Clogheen,  in  Tipperary,  the  parish  priest  of 
which  was  tl.e  Rev.  Nicholas  Sheehy.  The  magistracy  of  the 
county,  especially  Sir  Thomas  Maude,  "William  Bagnel,  John  Bag. 
well.  Daniel  Toler  and  Parson  Howitson,  were  among  the  chief 
maintainers  of  the  existence  of  a  Popish  plot,  to  bring  in  th« 
54* 


642  POPULAR   HIBTORr  OF   IRELAND. 

French  and  the  Pretender.  Father  Sheehy  had  long  been  fixed 
upon  as  their  victim :  largely  connected  with  the  minor  gentry, 
educated  in  France,  young,  popular,  eloquent  and  energetic,  a  stern 
denouncer  of  the  licentious  lives  of  the  squires,  and  of  the  exact- 
ing tithes  of  the  parsons,  he  was  particularly  obnoxious.  In 
1763,  he  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  for  drilling 
and  enrolling  Whiteboys,  but  was  acquitted.  Towards  the  close 
of  1  h  at  year,  Bridge,  one  of  the  late  witnesses  against  him,  sud- 
denly disappeared.  A  charge  of  murder  was  then  laid  against 
the  priest  of  Clogheen,  and  a  prostitute  named  Dunlea,  a  vagranl 
lad  named  Lonergan,  and  a  convicted  horse  stealer  called  Toohey 
were  produced  in  evidence  against  him,  after  he  had  lain  nearly  i 
year  in  prison,  heavily  fettered.  On  the  12th  of  March,  1765,  ht 
was  tried  at  Clonmel,  on  this  evidence ;  and  notwithstanding  an 
alibi  was  proved,  he  was  condemned  and  beheaded  on  the  third 
day  afterwards.  Beside  the  old  ruined  church  of  Shandraghan, 
his  well-worn  tomb  remains  till  this  day.  He  died  in  his  thirty- 
eighth  year.  Two  months  later,  Edward  Sheehy,  his  cousin,  and 
two  respectable  young  farmers  named  Buxton  and  Farrell,  were 
executed  under  a  similar  charge,  and  upon  the  same  testimony- 
All  died  with  religious  firmness  and  composure.  The  fate  of  their 
enemies  is  notorious ;  with  a  single  exception,  they  met  deatha 
violent,  loathsome  and  terrible.  Maude  died  insane,  Bagwell  in 
idiocy,  one  of  the  jury  commitied  suicide,  another  was  found  dead 
in  a  privy,  a  third  was  killed  by  his  horse,  a  fourth  was  drowned, 
a  fifth  shot,  and  so  through  the  entire  list.  Toohey  was  hanged 
for  felony,  the  prostitute  Dunlea  fell  into  a  cellar  and  was  killed, 
and  the  lad  Lonergan,  after  enlisting  as  a  soldier,  died  of  a  loath- 
some disease  in  a  Dnblin  infirmary. 

In  1767,  an  attempt  to  revive  the  plot  was  made  by  the  Muno- 
ter  oligarchy,  without  success.  Dr.  McEenna,  Bishop  of  Cloyne, 
was  arrested  but  enlarged ;  Mr.  Nagle,  of  Garnavilla  (a  relative 
of  Edmund  Burke),  Mr.  Robert  Keating,  and  several  respect- 
able Catholic  gentlemen,  were  also  arrested.  It  api>ears  that  Ed- 
mund Burke  was  charged  by  the  ascendancy  party  with  having 
"  sent  his  brother  Richard,  recorder  of  Bristol,  and  Mr.  Nagle,  • 
relation,  on  a  mission  to  Monster,  to  levy  money  on  the  Popish 
body  for  the  n»e  of  the  Whiteboys,  who  were  exclusively  Papist*." 


POPULAR    HISTORY    0V    IRELAND.  643 

The  fact  was,  that  Burke  did  originate  a  subscription  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  second  batch  of  victims,  who,  through  his  ami  other 
exertions,  were  fortunately  saved  from  the  fate  of  their  predecessors. 

Contemporaneous  with  the  Whiteboys  were  the  northern  agra- 
rians called  "  Hearts  of  Steel,"  formed  among  the  absentee  Lord 
Dowashire's  tenants,  in  1762;  the  "Oak  Boys,"  so  called  from 
wearing  oak  leaves  in  their  hats ;  and  the  "  Peep  o'Day  Boys," 
the  precursors  of  the  Orange  Association.  The  infection  of  con- 
spiracy ran  through  all  Ireland,  and  the  disorder  was  neither 
Bhort-lived  nor  trivial.  Right-Boys,  Defenders,  and  a  dozen 
other  denominations  descended  from  the  same  evil  genius,  whoever 
he  was,  that  first  introduced  the  system  of  signs,  and  passwords, 
and  midnight  meetings,  among  the  peasantry  of  Ireland.  The 
celebrated  society  of  United  Irishmen  was  the  highest  form  which 
that  principle,  in  our  politics,  ever  reached.  In  its  origin,  it  was 
mainly  a  Protestant  organization. 

From  the  first,  the  Catholic  bishops  and  clergy  strenuously 
opposed  these  secret  societies.  The  Bishop  of  Cloyne  issued  a 
reprobatory  pastoral ;  Father  Arthur  O'Leary  employed  his  facile 
pen  against  them ;  the  Bishop  of  Ossory  anathematized  them  in 
his  diocese.  Priests  in  Kildare,  Kilkenny  and  Munster  were 
often  in  personal  danger  from  these  midnight  legislators  j  their 
chapels  had  been  frequently  nailed  up,  and  their  bishops  had  been 
often  obliged  to  remove  them  from  one  neighborhood  to  another 
to  prevent  worse  consequences.  The  infatuation  was  not  to  be 
Btayed :  the  evil  was  engrafted  on  society,  and  many  a  long  year, 
and  woful  scene,  and  blighted  life,  and  broken  heart,  was  to  signal- 
ize the  perpetuation  of  secret  societies  among  the  population. 

These  startling  symptoms  of  insubordination  and  lawlessness, 
while  they  furnished  plausible  pretexts  to  the  advocates  of  repres- 
eion,  still  further  confirmed  the  Patriot  party  in  their  belief,  that 
nothing  short  of  a  free  trade  in  exports  and  imports,  and  a  thorough 
system  of  retrenchment  in  every  branch  of  the  public  service, 
could  save  the  nation  from  bankruptcy  and  ruin.  This  was 
Flood's  opinion,  and  he  had  been  long  recognized  as  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  party.  The  aged  Malone,  true  to  his  principles  of 
conciliation  and  constitutionalism  to  the  last,  passed  away  from 
the  scene,  in  the  midst  of  the  exciting  events  of  1776.  For  som« 


644  POPULAK    HISTORY    OF   IKELAHD. 

years  before  hia  death,  his  former  place  had  been  filled  by  the 
younger  and  more  vigorous  member  for  Kilkenny,  who,  however, 
did  not  fail  to  consult  him  with  all  the  deference  due  to  his  age, 
his  services,  and  his  wisdom.  One  of  his  last  official  acts,  Tag, 
presiding  ovci-  the  committee  of  the  whole  House,  which  voted 
the  American  contingent,  but  rejected  the  admission  of  German 
troops  to  supply  their  place. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
ORATTAN'S  LEADERSHIP. — "  FREE  TRADE,"  AND  THE  VOUJNTEIRS, 

THE  revolt  of  the  American  colonies  against  the  oppressive 
legislation  of  the  British  parliament,  was  the  next  circumstance 
that  deeply  affected  the  constitutional  struggle,  in  which  the  Irish 
parliament  had  so  long  been  engaged.  The  similarity  in  the 
grievances  of  Ireland  and  the  colonies,  the  close  ties  of  kindred 
established  between  them,  the  extent  of  colonial  commerce 
involved  in  the  result,  contributed  to  give  the  American  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  more  importance  in  men's  eyes  at  Dublin, 
than  anywhere  else  out  of  the  colonies,  except,  perhaps,  London. 

The  first  mention  made  of  American  affairs  to  the  Irish  legis- 
lature, was  in  Lord  Townsend's  message  in  1775,  calling  for  the 
despatch  of  4,OuO  men  from  the  Irish  establishment  to  America, 
and  offering  to  supply  their  place  by  as  many  foreign  Protestant 
(German)  troops.  The  demand  was  warmly  debated.  The  pro- 
position to  receive  the  proffered  foreign  troops  wis  rejected  by 
a  majority  of  thirty  -eight,  and  the  contingent  for  America  passed 
on  a  division,  upon  Flood's  plea  that  they  would  go  out  merely 
as  "  4,000  armed  negotiators."  This  expression  of  the  great 
parliamentary  leader  was  often  afterwards  quoted  to  his  preju- 
dice, but  we  must  remember,  that,  at  the  time  it  was  employed,  no 
ouu  •  .11  either  side  of  the  contest  had  abandoned  all  hopes  of 
•,'romrn rlition,  and  that  the  significance  of  the  phrase  WM 
rather  pointed  against  Lord  North  than  against  the  colooiea. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRKLAND.  645 

The  4,000  men  went  out,  among  them  Lord  Rawdon  (afterwards 
Lord  Moira),  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  many  others,  both 
officers  and  men,  who  were  certainly  no  enemies  of  liberty,  or  the 
tolonies. 

Some  slight  relaxation  of  the  commercial  restrictions  which 
operated  so  severely  against  Irish  industry  were  made  daring  the 
same  year,  but  these  were  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  em- 
bargo on  the  export  of  provisions  to  America,  imposed  in  Febru- 
ary. 1776.  This  arbitrary  measure— imposed  by  order  in  council 
— was  so  near  being  censured  by  the  parliament  then  sitting, 
that  the  house  was  dissolved  a  month  afterwards,  and  a  new 
election  ordered.  To  meet  the  new  parliament  it  was  thought 
advisable  to  send  over  a  new  viceroy,  and  accordingly  Lord 
Buckinghamshire  entered  into  office,  with  Sir  Richard  Herou  as 
chief  secretary. 

In  the  last  session  of  the  late  parliament,  a  young  protege  of 
Lord  Charlemont — he  was  only  in  his  twenty  ninth  year — had 
taken  his  seat  for  the  borough  of  Charlemont.  This  was  Henry 
Grattan,  son  of  the  Recorder  of  Dublin,  and  grandson  of  one  of 
those  Grattans  who,  according  to  Dean  Swift,  "  could  raise  10,000 
men."  The  youth  of  Grattan  had  been  neither  joyous  nor 
robust ;  in  early  manhood  he  had  offended  his  father's  conserva- 
tism ;  the  profession  of  the  law,  to  which  he  was  bred,  he  found 
irksome  and  unsuited  to  his  tastes ;  society  as  then  constituted 
was  repulsive  to  his  over-sensitive  spirit  and  high  Spartan  ideal  of 
manly  duty ;  no  letters  are  sadder  to  read,  than  the  early  cor- 
respondence of  Grattan,  till  he  had  fairly  found  his  inspiration  in 
listening  enraptured  to  the  eloquent  utterances  of  Chatham,  or 
comparing  political  opinions  with  such  a  friend  as  Flood.  At 
length  he  found  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  where  during 
his  first  session  he  spoke  on  three  or  four  occasions,  briefly, 
modestly,  and  with  good  effect ;  there  had  been  no  sitting  during 
1776,  nor  before  October  of  the  following  year  ;  it  was,  therefore, 
in  the  sessions  from  "78  to  '82  inclusive,  that  this  young  member 
raised  himself  to  the  head  of  the  most  eloquent  men,  in  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  assemblies  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  fact  of  Mr.  Flood,  after  fourteen  years  of  opposition,  hav 
tug  accepted  office  under  Lord  Harcourf  a  administration,  and 


646  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

defended  the  American  expedition  and  the  embargo,  had  greatly 
lessened  the  popularity  of  that  eminent  man.  There  was  indeed, 
no  lack  of  ability  still  left  in  the  ranks  of  the  opposition — for 
Burgh,  Daly,  and  Yelverton  were  there ;  but  for  a  supreme  spirit 
like  Grattan — whose  burning  tongue  was  ever  fed  from  his  heart 
of  fire — there  is  always  room  in  a  free  senate,  how  many  soever 
able  and  accomplished  men  may  surround  him. 

The  fall  of  1777  brought  vital  intelligence  from  America.  Gen- 
eral Burgoyne  had  surrendered  at  Saratoga,  and  France  had  de- 
cided to  ally  herself  with  the  Americans.  The  effect  in  England 
and  in  Ireland  was  immense.  When  the  Irish  houses  met,  Mr. 
Grattan  moved  an  address  to  the  king  in  favor  of  retrenchment, 
and  against  the  pension  list,  and  Mr  Daly  moved  and  carried  an 
address  deploring  the  continuance  of  the  American  war,  with  a 
governmental  amendment  assuring  his  majesty  that  he  might 
still  rely  on  the  services  of  hifl  faithful  commons.  The  second 
Catholic  relief  bill  authorizing  Papists  to  loan  money  on  mortgage* 
to  lease  lands  for  any  period  not  exceeding  999  years — to  inherit 
and  bequeath  real  property,  so  limited,  passed,  not  without  some 
difficulty,  into  law.  The  debate  had  been  protracted,  by  adjourn- 
ment after  adjournment,  over  the  greatest  part  of  three  months ; 
the  main  motion  had  been  further  complicated  by  an  amendment 
repealing  the  Test  Act  in  favor  of  Dissenters,  which  was,  fortun- 
ately, engrafted  on  the  measure.  The  vote  in  the  Commons,  in 
favor  of  the  bill  so  amended,  was  127  yean  to  89  nays,  and  in  the 
Lords,  44  Content*  to  28  Nonconients. 

In  the  English  House  of  Commons,  Lord  Nugent  moved,  in 
April,  a  series  of  resolutions  raising  the  embargo  on  the  Irish 
provision  trade ;  abolishing,  so  far  as  Ireland  was  concerned,  the 
most  restrictive  clauses  of  the  Navigation  Act,  both  as  to  ex- 
ports and  imports,  with  the  exception  of  the  article  of  tobacco. 
Upon  this  the  manufacturing  and  shipping  interest  of  England 
taking  the  alarm,  raised  such  a  storm  in  the  towns  and  citiee 
that  the  ministry  of  the  day  were  compelled  to  resist  the  pro- 
poeed  changes,  with  a  few  trifling  exceptions.  But  Grattan  had 
caught  up,  in  the  other  island,  the  cry  of  "  free  trade,"  and  the 
people  echoed  it  after  their  orator,  until  the  whole  anipire  dhook 
with  the  popular  demand. 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  64 

But  what  gave  pith  and  power  to  the  Irish  demands  was  the  en- 
rollment and  arming  of  a  numerous  volunteer  force,  rendered  abso- 
lutely necessary  by  the  defenceless  state  of  the  kingdom.  Mr. 
Flood  had  long  before  proposed  a  national  militia,  but  being  in  op- 
position and  in  the  minority,  he  had  failed.  To  him  and  to  Mr. 
Perry,  as  much  as  to  Lord  Charlemont  and  Mr.  Grattan,  the  militia 
bill  of  1778,  and  the  noble  army  of  volunteers  equipped  under  its 
provisions,  owed  their  origin.  Whether  this  force  was  to  be  a  regu- 
lar militia,  subject  to  martial  law,  or  composed  of  independent 
companies,  was  for  some  months  a  subject  of  great  anxiety  at  the 
castle;  but  necessity  at  length  precipitated  a  decision  in  favor 
of  volunteer  companies,  to  be  supplied  with  arms  by  the  state, 
but  drilled  and  clothed  at  their  own  expense,  with  power  to  elect 
their  own  officers.  The  official  announcement  of  this  decision 
once  made,  the  organization  spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  king- 
dom. The  Ulster  corps,  first  organized,  chose  as  their  com- 
mander the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  while  those  of  Leinster  elected 
the  Duke  of  Leinster.  Simultaneously,  resolutions  against  the 
purchase  of  English  goods  and  wares  were  passed  at  public 
meetings  and  by  several  of  the  corporate  bodies  Lists  of  the 
importers  of  such  goods  were  obtained  at  the  custom  houses,  and 
printed  in  handbills,  to  the  alarm  of  the  importers.  Swift's  sar- 
donic maxim,  "  to  burn  everything  coming  from  England,  except 
the  coah"  began  to  circulate  as  a  toast  in  all  societies,  and  the 
consternation  of  the  castle,  at  this  resurrection  of  the  redoubta- 
ble Dean,  wae  almost  equal  to  the  apprehension  entertained  of 
him  while  living. 

While  the  castle  was  temporizing  with  both  the  military  and 
the  manufacture  movement,  in  a  vague  expectation  to  defeat  both, 
the  press,  as  is  usual  in  such  national  crises,  teemed  with  publica- 
tions of  great  fervor  and  ability.  Dr.  Jebb,  Mr.  (afterwards 
Judge)  Johnson,  Mr.  Pollock,  Mr.  Charles  Sheridan,  Father 
Arthur  O'Leary,  and  Mr.  Dobbs,  M.  P.,  were  the  chief  workers  in 
this  department  of  patriotic  duty.  Cheered,  instructed,  re- 
strained within  due  bounds  by  these  writings  and  the  reported 
debates  of  parliament,  the  independent  companies  proceeded  with 
their  organization.  In  July,  1779,  after  all  the  resources  of  pre. 
YwicatJon  had  been  exhausted,  arms  were  issued  to  the  several 


848  POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

recognized  corps,  and  the  Irish  volunteers  became  in  reality  • 
national  army  for  domestic  protection  and  defence. 

When  this  point  was  reached,  Mr.  Grattan  and  his  friends  took 
anxious  council  as  to  their  future  movements.  Parliament  was 
to  meet  on  the  12th  of  October,  and  in  that  sweet  autumnal 
month,  Grattan,  Burgh  and  Daly  met  upon  the  seashore,  near 
Bray,  in  view  of  one  of  the  loveliest  landscapes  on  earth,  to  form 
their  plan  for  the  session.  They  agreed  on  an  amendment  to  the 
address  in  answer  to  the  royal  speech,  demanding  in  explicit 
terms  "  free  export  and  import "  for  Irish  commerce.  When  par- 
liament met,  and  the  address  and  amendment  were  moved,  it  was 
fonnd  that  Flood,  Burgh,  Hutchinson,  and  Gardiner,  though  all 
holding  offices  of  honor  and  emolument  under  government,  would 
vote  for  it.  Flood  suggested  to  substitute  the  simple  term  "  free 
trade,"  and  with  this  and  one  other  verbal  alteration  suggested  by 
Burgh,  the  amendment  passed  with  a  single  dissenting  voice. 

The  next  day  the  speaker,  Mr.  Perry,  who  was  all  along  in  the 
confidence  of  the  movers  of  the  amendment,  Daly,  Grattan,  Burgh, 
Flood,  Hutchinson,  Ponsonby,  Gardiner,  and  the  whole  house, 
went  up  with  the  amended  address  to  the  castle.  The  streets  were 
lined  with  volunteers,  commanded  in  person  by  the  Duke  of  Lein- 
ct  IT,  who  presented  arms  to  the  patriotic  commons  as  they  passed. 
Most  of  the  leading  members  wore  the  uniform  of  one  or  other 
of  the  national  companies,  and  the  people  saw  themselves  at  the 
Bame  moment  under  the  protection  of  a  patriotic  majority  in  the 
legislature,  and  a  patriot  force  in  the  field.  No  wonder  their  en- 
thusiastic cheers  rang  through  the  corridors  of  the  castle  with  a 
strangely  jubilant  and  defiant  emphasis.  It  was  not  simply  the 
spectacle  of  a  nation  recovering  its  spirit,  but  recovering  it  with 
all  military  'eclat  and  pageantry.  It  was  the  disarmed  armed  and 
triumphant — a  revolution  not  only  in  national  feeling,"  but  in  the 
externa.  manifestation  of  that  feeling.  A  change  so  profound 
Mtirrcd  sentiments  and  purposes  even  deeper  than  itself,  and  sug- 
gested to  the  ardent  imagination  of  Grattan  the  establishment  of  en- 
tire national  independence,  saving  always  the  rights  of  the  crown. 

The  next  day,  the  houses,  not  to  be  outdone  in  courtesy,  voted 
their  thanks  to  the  volunteers  for  "their  jnat  and  necessary  exer. 
tionfl  in  defence  of  their  country  I " 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF    IRELAND,  648 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

•SATTAN'S   LEADERSHIP. — LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  INDEPEOT»«NC» 
ESTABLISHED. 

THE  task  which  Mr.  Grattan  felt  called  upon  to  undertake,  was 
not  revolutionary,  in  the  usually  accepted  sense  of  the  term.  He 
was  a  Monarchist  and  a  "Whig  in  general  politics  ;  but  he  was  an 
Irishman,  proud  and  fond  of  his  country,  and  a  sincere  lover  of 
the  largest  religious  liberty.  With  the  independence  of  the  judi- 
ciary and  the  legislature,  with  freedom  of  commerce  and  of  con- 
ecience,  he  would  be  well  content  to  stand  by  British  connection. 
"  The  sea,"  he  said,  in  his  lofty  figurative  language,  "  protests 
against  union — the  ocean  against  separation."  But  still,  within 
certain  legal  limits,  his  task  was  revolutionary,  and  was  under- 
taken under  all  the  discouragements  incident  to  the  early  stages 
of  great  constitutional  reforms. 

Without  awaiting  the  action  of  the  English  Parliament,  in  rela- 
tion to  free  trade,  a  public-spirited  citizen  of  Dublin,  Alderman. 
James  Horan,  demanded  an  entry  at  the  custom  house,  for  some 
parcels  of  Irish  woolens,which  he  proposed  exporting  to  Rotterdam, 
contrary  to  the  prohibitory  enactment,  the  10th  and  llth  of  Wil- 
liam III.  The  commissioners  of  customs  applied  for  instructions 
to  the  castle,  and  the  castle  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  Franklin's 
friend,  Lord  Hillsborough.  For  the  moment  a  collision  similar 
to  that  which  had  taken  place  at  Boston,  on  a  not  dissimilar  issue, 
seemed  imminent.  A  frigate  was  stationed  off  Howth,  with  in- 
structions, it  was  said,  to  intercept  the  prohibited  woolens,  but 
Alderman  Horan,  by  the  advice  of  his  friends,  allowed  his  appli- 
cation to  remain  on  the  custom  house  files.  It  had  served  its 
purpose  of  bringing  home  practically  to  the  people,  the  value  of 
the  principle  involved  in  the  demand  for  freedom  of  exports  and 
imports.  At  the  same  time  that  this  practical  argument  was  dis- 
fussed  in  every  circle,  Mr.  Grattan  moved  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mon?, in  amendment  to  the  supply  bill,  that,  "At  this  time  it  is 
inexpedient  to  grant  new  taxes."  The  government  divided  the 
55 


PrO  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

house,  but  to  their  mortification  found  only  47  supporters ;  fol 
Grattan's  amendment  there  were  170.  A  subsequent  amendment 
against  granting  duties  for  the  support  of  the  loan  fund,  was  also 
Jtrried  by  138  to  100. 

These  adverse  votes  were  commonicated  with  great  trepidation, 
by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  to  the  British  administration.  At  length 
Lord  North  thought  it  essential  to  make  some  concessions,  and 
with  this  view  he  brought  in  resolutions,  declaring  the  trade  with 
the  British  colonize  in  America  and  Africa,  and  the  free  export 
of  glass  and  woolens,  open  to  the  Irish  merchant.  A  week  later, 
similar  resolutions  were  passed  in  the  Irish  Commons,  and  in 
February,  1780,  "  a  free  trade"  hi  the  sense  in  which  it  had  be«n 
demanded,  was  established  by  law,  placing  Ireland  in  most  re- 
spects, as  to  foreign  and  colonial  commerce,  on  an  equality  with 
England. 

In  February,  the  viceroy  again  alarmed  the  British  administra- 
tion, with  the  reported  movement  for  the  repeal  of  "  Poyning's 
law,"  the  statute  which  required  heads  of  bills  to  be  transmitted 
to,  and  appoved  in  England,  before  they  could  be  legislated  upon. 
He  received  in  reply,  the  royal  commands  to  resist  by  every 
means  in  his  power,  any  attempted  "  change  in  the  constitution," 
and  he  succeeded  in  eliciting  from  the  House  of  Lords,  an  address, 
strongly  condemnatory  of  "  the  misguided  men,"  who  sought  to 
raise  such  "  groundless  jealousies,"  between  the  two  kingdoms. 
But  the  Patriot  Commoners  were  not  to  be  so  deterred.  They 
declared  the  repeal  of  Poyning's  act,  and  the  6th  of  George  I.,  to 
be  their  ultimatum,  and  notices  of  motion  to  that  effect,  were  im- 
mediately placed  on  the  journals  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

In  the  early  days  of  April,  Grattan,  who,  more  than  any  of  our 
orators,  except  perhaps  Burke,  was  sensitive  to  the  aspects  of 
external  nature,  and  imbued  with  the  poetry  of  her  works,  retired 
from  the  city,  to  his  uncle  Dean  Mat-lay's  house,  Cellbridge  Abbey, 
f<  rmerly  the  residence  of  Swift's  ill-fated  Vaanessa.  "  Along  the 
banks  of  that  riyer,"  he  said,  many  years  afterwards,  "  amid  the 
grovca  wid  bowers  of  Swift  and  Vannessa,  I  grew  convinced  that 
I  was  right ;  arguments,  unanswerable,  came  to  ray  mind,  and 
what  I  'hen  presaged,  confirmed  me  in  my  determination  to  per- 
•*>ver*.'  With  an  enthusiasm  intensified  and  restrained — but 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRKLAHD.  fl5J 

wonderful  in  the  fire  and  grandeur  of  its  utterance — he  rose  in  hia 
place,  on  the  19th  of  the  month,  to  move  that  "the  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons  of  Ireland,  are  the  only  power  competent  to  enact 
laws  to  bind  Ireland."  He  was  supported  by  Hussey  Burgh, 
Yelverton,  and  Forbes  ;  Flood  favored  postponement,  and  laid  tho 
foundation  of  his  future  estrangement  from  Grattan ;  Daly  was 
also  for  delay  ;  Fitzgibbon,  afterwards  Lord  Clare,  Provost  Hufc 
chinson,  and  John  Foster,  afterwards  Lord  Oriel,  resisted  the 
motion.  The  Castle  party  moved  in  amendment  that,  "  there 
being  an  equivalent  resolution  already  on  the  journals  of  the  House  * 
— alluding  to  one  of  the  resolutions  against  Strafford's  tyranny  in 
lf>41 — a  new  resolution  was  unnecessary.  This  amendment  was 
carried  by  136  to  79,  thus  affirming  the  formula  of  independence 
adopted  in  1641,  but  depriving  Grattan  of  the  honor  of  putting  it, 
in  his  own  words,  on  the  record.  The  substantial  result,  how- 
ever, was  the  same;  the  19th  of  April  was  truly  what  Grattan 
described  it,  "  a  great  day  for  Ireland."  "  It  is  with  the  utmost 
concern,"  writes  the  viceroy  next  day  to  Lord  Hillsborough,  "  I 
must  acquaint  your  lordship  that  although  so  many  gentlemen 
expressed  their  concern  that  the  subject  had  been  introduced,  the 
Bense  of  the  House  against  the  obligation  of  any  statutes  of  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  within  this  kingdom,  is  represented 
to  me  to  have  been  almost  unanimous." 

Ten  days  later,  a  motion  of  Mr.  Yelverton's  to  repeal  Poyning's 
law,  as  far  as  related  to  the  Irish  privy  council's  supervision  of 
heads  of  bills,  was  negatived  by  180  to  105. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  session  the  battle  of  independ- 
ence was  fought  on  the  Mutiny  Bill  The  viceroy  and  the  chief 
secretary,  playing  the  game  of  power,  were  resolved  that  the 
influence  of  the  crown  should  not  be  diminished,  so  far  as  the 
military  establishments  were  concerned.  Two  justices  of  the 
peace  in  Sligo  and  Mayo,  having  issued  writs  of  habeas  corpux  in 
favor  of  deserters  from  the  army,  on  the  ground  that  neither  th« 
British  Mutiny  Act,  nor  any  other  British  statute,  w»as  binding 
on  Ireland,  unless  confirmed  by  an  act  of  its  own  legislature, 
brought  up  anew  the  whole  question.  Lord  North,  who,  with  al] 
his  proverbial  tact  and  good  humor,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
ilways  pursued  the  most  arbitrary  policy  throughout  the  empire^ 


054  FOPfLAB    HISTORY    OF    IBKLAKD. 

proposed  a  perpetual  Mutiny  Bill  for  Ireland,  instead  of  the 
Annual  Bill,  in  force  in  England.  It  was  introduced  iu  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Gervase  Parker  Bushe,  and,  by  a  vote 
f>f  two  to  one,  postponed  for  a  fortnight.  During  the  interval, 
the  British  authorities  remained  obdurate  to  argument  and  re- 
monstrance. In  vain,  the  majority  of  the  Irish  privy  councillors 
advised  concession ;  in  vain,  Flood,  who  was  consulted,  pointed 
out  the  futility  of  attempting  to  force  such  a  measure ;  it  was 
forced,  and,  under  the  cry  of  loyalty,  a  draft  bill  was  carried 
through  both  houses,  and  remitted  to  England  hi  June.  Early  in 
August  it  was  returned ;  on  the  12th  it  was  read  a  first  tune  ;  on 
the  16th  a  second;  and  it  was  carried  through  committee  by  114 
to  62.  It  was  at  this  emergency  the  Volunteers  performed  the 
second  act  of  their  great  drama  of  Ireland's  liberation.  A  series 
of  reviews  were  held,  and  significant  addresses  presented  to  Lord 
Camden  (then  on  a  visit  to  the  country),  Lord  Charlemont,  Mr. 
Flood,  and  Mr.  Grattan.  On  the  re-assembling  of  Parliament  in 
August,  when  the  bill  was  referred  to,  Mr.  Grattan  declared  thai, 
he  would  resist  it  to  the  last ;  that  if  passed  into  law,  he  and  his 
friends  would  secede,  and  would  appeal  to  the  people  in  "  a  formal 
instrument."  A  new  series  of  corporation  and  county  meetings 
was  convened  by  the  Patriot  party,  which  warmly  condemned 
(lie  Perpetual  Mutiny  Act,  and  as  warmly  approved  the  repeal 
of  Poyning*s  Act,  and  the  6th  of  George  I. :  questions  which  were 
all  conceived  to  be  intermixed  together,  and  to  flow  from  the 
assertion  of  a  common  principle.  Parliament  being  prorogued 
in  September,  only  threw  the  whole  controversy  back  again  into 
the  furnace  of  popular  agitation.  The  British  government  tried 
a  lavish  distribution  of  titles  and  a  change  of  viceroys, — Lord 
Carlisle  being  substituted  in  December  for  Lord  Buckingham — 
but  the  spirit  abroad  was  too  general  and  too  earnest,  to  b« 
quelled  by  the  desertion  of  individuals,  however  numerous  or 
influential.  With  Lord  Carlisle,  came,  as  chief  secretary,  Mr. 
E Jen,  afterwards  Lord  Auckland ;  he  had  been,  with  his  chief,  a 
peace  commissioner  to  America,  two  years  before,  and  had  failed  ; 
he  was  anintriguing  nnd  accomplished  man, buthe  proved  himself 
as  unequal  as  Heron  or  Rigby  to  combat  the  movement 
Independence 


FOPCLAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  058 

Parliament  was  not  again  called  together  till  the  month  o! 
October,  173-  ;  the  interval  being  busily  occupied  on  both  sides 
with  endeavors  to  create  and  sustain  n  party.  Soon  after  the 
meeting,  Mr.  Grattan,  seconded  by  Mr.  Flood,  moved  for  a  limita- 
tion of  the  Mutiny  Bill,  which  was  lost ;  a  little  later,  Mr.  Flood 
himself  introduced  a  somewhat  similar  motion,  which  was  also 
outvoted  two  to  one ;  and  again,  during  the  session,  Mr.  Yelver- 
ton  having  abandoned  his  promised  motion  against  Poyning's 
law,  on  news  of  Lord  Cornwallis's  surrender  reaching  Dublin, 
Flood  took  it  np,  moved  it,  and  was  defeated.  A  further  measure 
of  relief  for  Roman  Catholics,  introduced  by  Mr.  Gardiner,  author 
of  the  act  of  1778,  and  warmly  supported  by  Grattan,  was  re- 
sisted by  Flood  in  the  one  house,  and  Lord  Charlemont  in  the 
other.  It  miscarried,  and  left  another  deposit  of  disagreement 
between  the  actual  and  the  former  leader  of  the  Patriot  party. 

Still  no  open  rupture  had  taken  place  between  the  two  Patriot 
orators.  When  the  convention  of  the  volunteers  was  called  at 
Dungannon  for  the  16th  of  February,  1782,  they  consulted  at 
Charlemont  House  as  to  the  resolutions  to  be  passed.  They  were 
agreed  on  the  constitutional  question ;  Grattan,  of  his  own  gene- 
rous free  will,  added  the  resolution  in  favor  of  emancipation.  Two 
hundred  and  forty-two  delegates,  representing  143  corps,  unani- 
mously adopted  the  resolutions  so  drafted,  as  their  own,  and,  from 
the  old  headquarters  of  Hugh  O'Neil,  sent  forth  anew  an  un- 
equivocal  demand  for  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The  example 
of  Ulster  soon  spread  through  Ireland.  A  meeting  of  the  Lein- 
ster  volunteers,  Mr.  Flood  in  the  chair,  echoed  it  from  Dublin ; 
the  Munster  corps  endorsed  it  unanimously  at  Cork ;  Lord  Clan, 
rickarde  summoned  together  those  of  the  western  counties  at 
Portumna — an  historic  spot,  suggestive  of  striking  associations. 
Strengthened  by  these  demonstrations  of  public  opinion,  Mr. 
Grattan  brought  forward,  on  the  22d  of  February,  his  motion 
declaratory  of  the  rights  of  Ireland.  An  amendment  in  favor  of 
a  six  months'  postponement  of  the  question  was  carried ;  but  on 
the  16th  of  April,  just  two  years  from  his  first  effort  on  the  sub- 
ject (the  administration  of  Lord  North  having  fallen  in  the 
meantime),  the  orator  had  the  satisfaction  of  carrying  his  arHresg 
declaratory  of  Irish  legislative  independence.  It  was  on  thi» 
55* 


654  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

occasion  that  he  exclaimed :  "  I  found  Ireland  on  her  knees ;  1 
watched  over  her  with  a  paternal  solicitude ;  I  have  traced  her 
progress  from  injury  to  arms,  and  from  arms  to  liberty.  Spirit 
of  Swift !  Spirit  of  Molyneux  1  your  genius  has  prevailed  I 
Ireland  is  now  a  nation  !  in  that  new  character  I  hail  her  !  and 
bowing  to  her  august  presence,  I  say,  Esto  perpetua  I" 

Never  was  a  new  nation  more  nobly  heralded  into  existence ! 
Never  was  an  old  nation  more  reverently  and  tenderly  lifted  up 
and  restored !  The  houses  adjourned  to  give  England  time  to 
consider  Ireland's  ultimatum.  Within  a  month  it  was  accepted 
by  the  new  British  administration,  and  on  the  27th  of  May,  the 
new  Whig  viceroy,  the  Duke  of  Portland,  was  authorized  to 
announce  from  the  throne  the  establishment  of  the  judicial  and 
legislative  independence  of  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    ERA   OF   INDEPENDENCE. — FIR81    rCRIOD. 

THE  accession  of  the  Rockingham  administration  to  power,  it 
1782,  was  followed  by  the  recall  of  Lord  Carlisle,  and  the  substi- 
tution, as  viceroy,  of  one  of  the  leading  Lords  of  the  Whig  party. 
The  nobleman  selected  to  this  office  was  William  Henry,  third 
Duke  of  Portland,  afterwards  twice  prime  minister ;  then  in  the 
prime  of  life,  possessed  of  a  very  ample  fortune,  and  uniting  in 
his  own  person  the  two  great  Whig  families  of  Bentinck  and 
Cavendish.  The  policy  he  was  sent  to  represent  at  Dublin  was 
nndoubtedly  an  imperial  policy ;  a  policy  which  looked  as  anxi- 
ously to  the  integrity  of  the  empire  as  any  Tory  cabinet  could 
have  desired  ;  but  it  was,  in  most  other  respects,  a  policy  of  con- 
ciliation and  concession,  dictated  by  the  enlarged  wisdom  ef 
Burke,  and  adopted  by  the  magnanimous  candor  of  Fox.  Yet  by 
a  genereus  people,  who  always  find  it  more  difficult  to  resist  • 
liberal  than  an  illiberal  administration,  it  was,  in  reality,  a  policy 
more  to  be  feared  than  welcomed ;  for  its  almost  certain  effecti 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  655 


were  to  divide  their  ranks  into  two  sections  —  a  moderate  and  an 
extreme  paity  —  between,  whom  the  national  cause,  only  half  estab- 
lished, might  run  great  danger  of  being  lost,  almost  as  soon  as  it 
was  won. 

With  the  Duke  of  Portland  was  associated,  as  chief  secretary, 
Colonel  Fitzpatrick,  of  the  old  Ossory  family,  one  of  those  Irish 
wits  and  men  of  fashion,  who  form  so  striking  a  group  in  the 
middle  and  later  years  of  King  George  III.  As  the  personal  and 
political  friend  of  Flood,  Charlemont,  and  Grattan,  and  the  first 
Irish  secretary  for  several  administrations,  he  shai  ed  the  brilliant 
ovation  with  which  the  Duke  of  Portland  was  received,  on  hia 
arrival  at  Dublin  ;  but  for  the  reason  already  mentioned,  the  im- 
perial in  so  far  as  opposed  to  the  national  policy,  found  an  addi- 
tional advantage,  in  the  social  successes  and  great  personal  popu- 
larity of  the  new  secretary. 

The  critical  months  which  decided  the  contest  for  independence 
—  April  and  May  —  passed  over  fortunately  for  Ireland.  The 
firmness  of  the  leaders  in  both  houses,  the  energy  especially  of 
Grattan,  whose  cry  was  "  no  time,  no  tune  !"  and  the  imposing 
attitude  of  the  volunteers,  carried  the  question.  Lord  Rocking- 
ham  and  Mr.  Fox  by  letter,  the  new  viceroy  and  secretary  in  per- 
son, had  urged  every  argument  for  adjournment  and  delay,  but 
Grattan's  ultimatum  was  sent  over  to  England,  and  finally  and 
formally  accepted.  The  demands  were  Jive.  I.  The  repeal  of 
the  6th  of  George  I.  II.  The  repeal  of  the  Perpetual  Mutiny 
Act.  III.  An  Act  to  abolish  the  alteration  or  suppression  of 
Bills.  IV.  An  Act  to  establish  the  final  jurisdiction  of  the  Irish 
Courts  and  the  Irish  House  of  Lords.  V.  The  repeal  of  Foy- 
ning's  Law.  This  was  the  constitutional  charter  of  1782,  which 
restored  Ireland,  for  the  first  time  in  that  century,  to  the  rank  and 
dignity  of  a  free  nation. 

Concession  once  determined  on,  the  necessary  bills  were  intro- 
duced in  both  parliaments  simultaneously,  and  carried  promptly 
intc  law.  On  the  27th  of  May,  the  Irish  houses  were  enabled  to 
congratulate  the  viceroy  that  "  no  constitutional  question  any 
longer  existed  between  the  two  countries."  In  England  it  wa» 
proclaimed  no  less  explicitly  by  Fox  and  his  friends,  that  the  in- 
dependency  of  the  two  legislatures,  "  was  fixed  and  ascertaine4 


650     POPULAR  msroRY  OP  IRELAKD* 

forever."  But  there  was,  unfortunately,  one  ground  for  dispute 
still  left,  and  on  that  ground  Henry  Flood  and  Henry  Grattan 
farted,  never  to  be  reconciled. 

The  elder  Patriot  whose  conduct  from  the  moment  of  his  retire- 
ment  from  office,  in  consequence  of  his  Free  Trade  vote  and  speech 
in  '79,  had  been,  with  occasional  exceptions  arising  mostly  from 
bodily  infirmity,  as  energetic  and  consistent  as  that  of  Grattan 
himself,  saw  no  sufficient  constitutional  guarantee,  in  mere  acta 
of  parliament  repealing  other  acts.  He  demanded  "  express  re- 
nunciation "  of  legislative  supremacy  on  the  part  of  England 
while  Grattan  maintained  the  sufficiency  of  "  simple  repeal."  It  is 
possible  even  in  such  noble  natures  as  these  men  had — so  strangely 
are  we  constituted — that  there  was  a  latent  sense  of  personal 
rivalry,  which  prompted  them  to  grasp,  each,  at  the  larger 
share  of  patriotic  honor.  It  is  possible  that  there  were  other, 
and  inferior  men,  who  exasperated  this  latent  personal  rivalry. 
Flood  had  once  reigned  supreme,  until  Grattan  eclipsed  him  in 
the  sudden  splendor  of  his  career.  In  scholarship  and  in  genius 
the  elder  Patriot  was,  taken  all  in  all,  the  full  peer  of  his  suc- 
cessor ;  but  Grattan  had  the  national  temperament,  and  he  found 
hia  way  more  readily  into  the  core  of  the  national  heart ;  he  was 
the  man  of  the  later,  the  bolder,  and  the  more  liberal  school ; 
and  such  was  the  rapidity  of  his  movements  that  even  Flood, 
from  '79  to  '82,  seemed  to  be  his  follower,  rather  than  his  coadju- 
tor.  In  the  hopeful  crisis  of  the  struggle,  the  slower  and  more 
experienced  statesman  was  for  the  moment  lost  sight  of.  The 
leading  motions  were  all  placed  or  left  in  the  hands  of  Grattan 
by  the  consent  of  their  leading  friends ;  the  bills  repealing  the 
Mutiny  Act,  the  6th  George  I.,  and  Poyning's  law,  were  entrusted 
to  Burgh,  Yelverton,  and  Forbes ;  the  thanks  of  the  house  were 
voted  to  Grattan  alone  after  the  victory,  with  the  substantial 
addition  of  £50,000  to  purchase  for  him  an  estate,  which  should 
become  an  enduring  monument  of  the  national  gratitude. 

The  open  rupture  between  the  two  great  orators  followed  fast 
on  the  triumph  of  their  common  efforts.  It  was  still  the  first 
month — the  very  honeymoon  of  independence.  On  the  18th  of 
June.  Mr.  Graf  an  took  occasion  to  notice  in  his  place,  that  a  lsit« 
British  act  relating  to  the  importation  of  sugars,  was  so  generally 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OP   IRELAND.  657 

worded  as  apparently  to  include  Ireland ;  but  this  was  explained 
to  be  a  mere  error  of  the  clerk,  the  result  of  haste,  and  on« 
which  would  be  promptly  corrected.  Upon  this  Mr.  Flood  first 
took  occasion  to  moot  the  insufficiency  of  ".simple  repeal,"  and 
the  necessity  of  "express  renunciation,"  on  the  part  of  England. 
On  the  19th,  he  moved  a  formal  resolution  on  the  subject,  which 
•was  superseded  by  the  order  of  the  day;  but  on  the  19th  of  July, 
he  again  moved,  at  great  length  and  with  great  power  of  logical 
and  historical  argument,  for  leave  to  bring  in  an  Irish  Bill  of 
Rights,  declaring  "  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liament to  make  laws  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  external  and  inter- 
nal." He  was  supported  by  Sir  Simon  Bradstreet,  Mr.  English, 
and  Mr.  Walshe,  and  opposed  by  Grattan,  who,  in  one  of  his 
finest  efforts,  proposed  a  counter  resolution,  "that  the  legislature 
of  Ireland  is  independent;  and  that  any  person  who  shall,  by 
writing  or  otherwise,  maintain  that  a  right  in  any  other  country, 
to  make  laws  for  Ireland,  internally  or  externally,  exists  or  can  be 
revived,  is  inimical  to  the  peace  of  both  kingdoms."  This  ex- 
treme proposition — pointing  out  all  who  differed  from  himself  as 
public  enemies — the  mover,  however,  withdrew,  and  substituted 
in  its  stead  the  milder  formula,  that  leave  was  refused  to  bring 
in  the  bill,  because  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  legislation  in 
the  Irish  parliament  in  all  cases,  whether  externally  or  internally, 
hath  been  already  asserted  by  Ireland,  and  fully,  finally,  and 
irrevocably  acknowledged  by  the  British  Parliament.  Upon  this 
motion  Flood  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  divide  the  house,  so  it 
passed  without  a  division. 

But  the  moot  point  thus  voted  down  in  parliament  disquieted 
and  alarmed  the  minds  of  many  out  of  doors.  The  volunteers  as 
generally  sided  with  Flood  as  the  parliament  had  sided  with 
Grattan.  The  lawyer  corps  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  containing  all 
the  great  names  of  the  legal  profession,  endorsed  the  constitu- 
tional law  of  the  member  for  Kilkenny ;  the  Belfast  volunteers 
did  likewise ;  and  Grattan's  own  corps,  in  a  respectful  address, 
urged  him  to  give  his  adherence  to  the  views  of  "  the  best  in- 
formed body  of  men  in  the  kingdom," — the  lawyers'  corps.  Just 
at  that  moment  Lord  Abingdon,  in  the  English  House  of  Lords, 
gave  notice  of  a  mischievous  motion  to  assert  the  external  supr* 


658  POPULAR  HISTORY  or  IRHLAHD. 

macy  of  the  English  Parliament;  and  Lord  Manslield,  in  ik« 
King's  Bench,  decided  an  Irish  appeal  case,  notwithstanding  the 
recent  statute  establishing  the  judicial  independence  of  the  Irish 
courts.  It  is  true  the  case  had  been  appealed  before  the  statute 
was  passed ;  and  that  Lord  Abingdon  withdrew  his  motion  for 
want  of  a  seconder ;  but  the  alarm  was  given,  and  fhe  populat 
mind  in  Ireland,  jealously  watchful  of  its  new-born  liberties,  saw 
in  these  attempts  renewed  cause  for  apprehension.  In  opposition 
to  all  this  suddenly  awakened  suspicion  and  jealousy,  Grattan, 
who  naturally  enough  assumed  his  own  interest  in  preserving  the 
new  constitution  to  be  quite  equal  to  those  who  cast  doubts  on 
its  security,  invariably  held  one  language.  The  settlement  already 
made,  according  to  his  view,  was  final ;  it  was  an  international 
treaty ;  its  maintenance  must  depend  on  the  ability  and  disposi- 
tion of  the  parties  to  uphold  it,  rather  than  on  the  multiplication 
of  declaratory  acts.  Ireland  had  gone  to  England  with  a  charter, 
not  for  a  charter,  and  the  nation  which  would  insist  upon  the 
humiliation  of  another,  was  a  foolish  nation.  This  was  the  lofty 
light  in  which  he  viewed  the  whole  transaction,  and  in  this  light, 
it  must  be  added,  he  continued  to  view  it  till  the  last.  Many  of 
the  chief  English  and  Irish  jurists  of  his  time,  Lord  Camden, 
Lord  Kenyon,  Lord  Erskine,  Lord  Kilwarden,  Judges  Chamber- 
lain, Smith  and  Kelly,  Sir  Samuel  Rommilly,  Sir  Arthur  Pigott, 
and  several  others,  agreed  fully  in  Grattan's  doctrine,  that  the 
settlement  of  '82  was  final  and  absolute,  and  "  terminated  all 
British  jurisdiction  over  Ireland."  But  although  these  are  all 
great  names,  the  instinct  of  national  self-preservation  may  be 
considered  in  such  critical  moments  more  than  a  counterpoise  to 
the  most  matured  opinions  of  the  oracles  of  the  law.  Such  must 
have  been  the  conviction  also  of  the  English  Parliament,  for,  im- 
loediately  on  their  meeting  in  January,  1788,  they  passed  the 
Act  of  Renunciation  (23d  George  III.),  expressly  declaring  their 
admission  of  the  "  exclusive  rights  of  the  parliament  and  court* 
of  Ireland  in  matters  of  legislature  and  judicature."  This  waa 
Flood's  greatest  triumph.  Six  months  before  his  doctrine  ob- 
tained but  three  supporters  in  the  Irish  Commons ;  now,  at  hia 
suggestion,  and  on  his  grounds,  he  saw  it  unanimously  affirmed 
by  the  British  Parliament. 


POPULAB   BISTORT    OT    IRELAND.  659 

On  two  other  questions  of  the  utmost  importance  these  jeading 
spirits  also  widely  differed.  Grattan  was  in  favor  of,  and  Flood 
opposed  to  Catholic  emancipation ;  while  Flood  was  in  favor  of, 
and  Grattan,  at  that  moment,  opposed  to,  a  complete  reform  of 
parliamentary  representation.  The  Catholic  question  had  its 
next  great  triumph  after  Flood's  death,  as  will  be  mentioned  fur- 
ther on ;  but  the  history  of  the  Irish  reform  movement  of  1788, 
'84,  and  '86,  may  best  be  disposed  of  here. 

The  Reformers  were  a  new  party  rising  naturally  out  of  the 
popular  success  of  1782.  They  were  composed  of  all  but  a  few 
of  the  more  aristocratic  corps  of  the  volunteers,  of  the  towns- 
men, especially  in  the  seaports  and  manufacturing  towns,  of  the 
admirers  of  American  example,  of  the  Catholics  who  had  lately 
acquired  property  and  recognition,  but  not  the  elective  franchise, 
of  the  gentry  of  the  second  and  third  degree  of  wealth,  over- 
•uled  and  overshadowed  by  the  greater  lords  of  the  soil.  The 
substantial  grievance  of  which  they  complained  was,  that  of  the 
800  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  only  72  were  returned 
by  the  people;  63  Peers  having  the  power  to  nominate  123  and 
secure  the  election  of  10  others;  while  52  Commoners  nominated 
91  and  controlled  the  choice  of  4  others.  The  constitution  of 
what  ought  to  have  been  the  people's  house  was,  therefore,  sub- 
stantially in  the  hands  of  an  oligarchy  of  about  a  hundred  great 
proprietors,  bound  together  by  the  spirit  of  their  class,  by  inter- 
marriage, and  by  the  hereditary  possession  of  power.  To  reduce 
this  exorbitant  influence  within  reasonable  bounds,  was  the  just 
and  wise  design  to  which  Flood  dedicated  all  his  energies,  after 
the  passage  of  the  Ad  of  Renunciation,  and  the  success  of  which 
would  certainly  have  restored  him  to  complete  equality  with 
Grattan. 

In  the  beginning  of  1783,  the  famous  coalition  ministry,  of 
Lord  North  and  Mr.  Fox,  was  formed  in  England.  They  were* 
at  first  represented  at  Dublin  Castle,  for  a  few  months,  by  Lord 
Temple,  who  succeeded  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and  established 
the  order  of  Knights  of  Saint  Patrick  ;  then  by  Lord  Northing- 
ton,  who  dissolved  Parliament  early  in  July.  A  general  election 
followed,  and  the  reform  party  made  their  influence  felt  in  all 
directions.  County  meetings  were  held  ;  conventions  by  district* 


660  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

and  by  provinces  were  called  by  the  reforming  Volunteers,  ii 
July,  Angust  and  September.  The  new  Parliament  was  to  b« 
opened  on  the  14th  of  October,  and  the  Volunteers  resolved  to 
call  a  convention  of  their  whole  body  at  Dublin,  for  the  10th  of 
November. 

The  Parliament  met  according  to  summons,  but  though  search- 
ing retrenchment  was  spoken  of,  no  promise  was  held  out  of  a 
constitutional  reform ;  the  limitation  of  the  regular  troops  to  a 
fixed  number  was  declared  advisable,  and  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the 
Volunteers  was  passed  without  demur.  But  the  proceedings  of 
the  houses  were  soon  eclipsed  by  the  portentous  presence  of  the 
Volunteer  Convention.  One  hundred  ai.  J  sixty  delegates  of  corps 
attended  on  the  appointed  day.  The  Royal  Exchange  was  too 
small  to  aeeomodate  them,  so  they  adjourned  to  the  Rotunda, 
accompanied  by  mounted  guards  of  honor.  The  splendid  and 
eccentric  Bishop  of  Derry  (Earl  of  Bristol),  had  his  dragoon 
guards ;  the  courtly  but  anxious  Charlemont  had  his  troop  of 
horse  ;  Flood,  tall,  emaciated,  and  solemn  to  sadness,  was  hailed 
with  popular  acclamations  ;  there  also  marched  the  popular  Mr. 
Day,  afterwards  Judge,  Robert  Stewart,  father  of  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  Sir  Richard  Musgrave,  a  reformer  also,  in  his  youth,  who 
lived  to  confound  reform  with  rebellion  in  his  old  age.  The  Earl 
of  Charlemont  was  elected  president  of  this  imposing  body,  and 
for  an  entire  month  Dublin  was  divided  between  the  extraordinary 
spectacle  of  two  legislatures — one  sitting  at  the  Rotunda,  and  the 
other  at  College  Green,  many  members  of  each  being  members 
of  the  other ;  the  uniform  of  the  volunteer  sparkling  in  the 
houses,  and  the  familiar  voices  of  both  houses  being  heard  de- 
liberating and  debating  among  the  volunteers. 

At  length,  on  the  29th  of  November,  after  three  weeks'  labor- 
ions  gestation,  Flood  brought  before  Parliament  the  plan  of  re* 
form  agreed  to  by  the  convention.  It  proposed  to  extend  the 
franchise  to  every  Protestant  freeholder  possessed  of  a  lease  worth 
forty  shillings  yearly ;  to  extend  restricted  borough  constituen- 
cies by  annexing  to  them  neighboring  populous  parishes ;  that 
the  voting  should  be  held  on  one  and  the  same  day ;  that  pen. 
•loners  of  the  crown  should  be  incapable  of  election ;  that  mem. 
bers  accepting  office  should  be  subject  to  reelection ;  that  a  stria 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OP   IRELAND.  661 

gent  bribery  oath  should  be  administered  to  candidates  returned , 
and,  finally,  that  the  duration  of  Parliament  should  be  limited 
to  three  years.  It  was,  indeed,  an  excellent  Protestant  Reform 
bill,  for  though  the  convention  had  received  Father  Arthur 
O'Leary  with  military  honors,  and  contained  many  warm  friends 
of  Catholic  rights,  the  majority  were  still  intolerant  of  religiou* 
freedom.  In  this  majority  it  is  painful  to  have  to  record  the 
names  of  Flood  and  Charlemont. 

The  debate  which  followed  the  introduction  of  this  proposed 
change  in  the  constitution,  was  stormy  beyond  all  precedent. 
Grattan,  who  just  one  month  before  (Oct.  28th)  had  that  fierce 
vituperative  contest  with  Flood  familiar  to  every  school-boy,  in 
its  worst  and  most  exaggerated  form,  supported  the  proposal. 
The  law  officers  of  the  crown,  Fitzgibbon,  Yelverion,  Scott,  de- 
nounced it  as  an  audacious  attempt  of  armed  men  to  dictate  to 
the  house  its  own  constitution.  The  cry  of  privilege  and  prero- 
gative was  raised,  and  the  measure  was  rejected  by  157  to  77. 
Flood,  weary  in  mind  and  body,  retired  to  his  home ;  the  Con- 
vention, which  outsat  the  house,  adjourned  amid  the  bitter  in- 
dignation of  some,  and  the  scarcely  concealed  relief  of  others. 
Two  days  later  they  met  and  adopted  a  striking  address  to  th« 
throne,  and  adjourned  tine  die.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  last  Im- 
portant day  of  the  Volunteers  as  a  political  institution.  An 
attempt  a  month  later  to  reassemble  the  convention,  was  dexter- 
ously defeated  by  the  President,  Lord  Charlemont.  The  regular 
army  was  next  session  increased  to  15,000  men  ;  £20,000  were 
voted  to  clothe  and  equip  a  rival  force — "  the  Militia  " — and  the 
Parliament  which  had  three  times  voted  them  its  thanks,  now 
began  to  look  with  satisfaction  on  their  rapid  disorganization 
•nd  disbandment. 

This,  perhaps,  is  the  fittest  place  to  notice  the  few  remaining 
years  of  the  public  life  of  Henry  Flood.  After  the  session  of  1785, 
in  which  he  had  been  outvoted  on  every  motion  he  proposed, 
he  retired  from  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
persuaded,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three,  to  enter  the  English.  He  was 
elected  for  "Winchester,  and  made  his  first  essay  on  the  new  scene, 
on  h'u  favorite  subject  of  representative  reform.  But  his  health 
was  undermined;  he  failed,  except  on  one  or  two  occasions,  to 
66 


602  rOPDLAB   HIBTORT    UF   IRELAKD. 

catch  the  ear  of  that  fastidious  assembly,  and  the  figure  he  made 
there  somewhat  disappointed  his  frends.  He  returned  to  Kil- 
kenny fe  >  die  in  1791,  bequeathing  a  large  portion  of  his  fortune 
to  Trinhy  College,  to  enrich  its  MS.  library,  and  to  found  a  per- 
manent professorship  of  the  Irish  language.  "  He  was  an  oak 
of  the  forest,"  said  Grattan,  "  too  old  to  be  transplanted  at  fifty." 
"  He  was  a  man,"  eaid  one  who  also  knew  him  well,  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington,  "of  profound  abilities,  high  manners,  and  great  ex- 
perieuce  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland.  He  bad  deep  information,  an 
extensive  capacity,  and  a  solid  judgment"  In  his  own  magnifi- 
cent "  Ode  to  Fame  "  he  has  pictured  his  ideal  of  the  Patriot 
orator,  who  find*  some  consolation  amid  the  unequal  struggle 
•with  the  enemies  of  his  country,  foreign  and  domestic,  in  a  pro- 
phetic vision  of  his  own  renown.  Unhappily,  the  works  of  this 
great  man  come  down  to  us  in  as  fragmentary  a  state  as  those  of 
Chatham  ;  but  enough  remains  to  enable  us  to  class  him  amongst 
the  greatest  masters  of  our  speech,  and,  as  far  as  the  drawbacks 
allowed,  among  the  foremost  statesmen  of  his  country. 

It  ia  painful  to  be  left  in  doubt,  as  we  are,  whether  he  was 
ever  reconciled  to  Grattan.  The  presumption,  from  the  silence 
of  their  cotemporaries,  is,  that  they  they  never  met  again  as 
friends.  But  it  is  consoling  to  remember  that  in  his  grave,  the 
Hurvivor  rendered  him  that  tribute  of  justice  which  almost  takes 
the  undying  sting  out  of  the  philippic  of  1783;  it  is  well  to  know, 
also,  that  one  of  Grattau's  latest  wishes,  thirty  years  after  the 
death  of  Flood,  when  he  felt  his  own  last  hours  approaching, 
was,  that  it  should  be  known  that  he  "  did  not  speak  the  vile 
•buse  reported  in  the  Debates"  in  relation  to  his  illustrious  rival. 
The  beet  proof  that  what  he  did  say  was  undeserved,  is  that 
that  rival's  reputation  for  integrity  and  public  spirit  has  tor 
rived  even  his  terrible  onslaught. 


POPULAR   BISTORT   07   IRELAND.  663 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  ERA  OF  INDEPENDENCE. — SECOND  PERIOD., 

THE  second  period  of  the  era  of  independence  may  be  taid  to 
embrace  the  nine  years  extending  from  the  dissolution  of  the  last 
Volunteer  Convention,  at  the  end  of  1784,  to  the  passage  of  the 
Catholic  Relief  Bill  of  1*793.  They  were  years  of  continued  in- 
terest and  excitement,  both  in  the  popular  and  parliamentary 
affairs  of  the  country ;  but  the  events  are,  with  the  exception  of 
the  last  named,  of  a  more  secondary  order,  than  those  of  the  pre- 
vious period. 

The  session  of  1785  was  first  occupied  with  debates  relating  to 
what  might  be  called  the  cross-channel  trade  between  England 
and  Ireland.  The  question  of  trade  brought  with  it,  necessarily, 
the  question  of  revenue;  of  the  duties  levied  in  both  kingdoms; 
of  the  conflict  of  their  commercial  laws,  and  the  necessity  of  their 
assimilation ;  of  the  appropriations  to  be  borne  by  each,  to  the 
general  expense  of  the  army  and  navy ;  of  the  exclusive  right  of 
the  English  East  India  Company  to  the  Indian  trade ; — in  short, 
the  whole  of  the  fiscal  and  commercial  relations  of  the  two  coun- 
tries were  now  to  be  examined  and  adjusted,  as  their  constitu- 
tional relations  had  been  in  previous  years. 

The  first  plan  came  from  the  castle,  through  Mr.  Thomas  Orde, 
then  chief  secretary,  afterwards  Lord  Bolton.  It  consisted  of 
eleven  propositions,  embracing  every  division  of  the  subject. 
They  had  been  arrived  at  by  consultation  with  Mr.  Joshua  Pirn, 
a  most  worthy  Quaker  merchant,  the  founder  of  an  equally  worthy 
family,  Mr.  Grattan,  Mr.  Foster  and  others.  They  were  passed 
as  resolutions  in  Ireland,  and  sent  by  Mr.  Orde  to  England  to  see 
whether  they  would  be  adopted  there  also :  the  second  Pitt,  then 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  gave  his  concurrence,  but  when  he 
Introduced  to  the  English  Parliament  his  resolutions — twenty  in 
number — it  was  found  that  in  several  important  respects  they 
differed  from  the  Irish  propositions.  On  being  taken  up  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Irish  Parliament,  in  August,  the  administration 


664  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

found  they  could  command,  in  a  full  house,  only  a  aajority  of 
sixteen  for  their  introduction,  and  so  the  whole  arrangement  wa* 
abandoned.  No  definite  commercial  treaty  between  the  two  king- 
doms was  entered  into  until  the  Union,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  miscarriage  of  the  convention  of  1785,  was  one  of 
the  determining  causes  of  that  Union. 

The  next  session  was  chiefly  remarkable  for  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  reduce  the  Pension  List.  In  this  debate,  Curran,  who 
had  entered  the  House  in  1783,  particularly  distinguished  him- 
self. A  fierce  exchange  of  personalities  with  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  led 
to  a  duel  between  them,  in  which,  fortunately,  neither  was  wound- 
ed, but  their  public  hostility  was  transferred  to  the  arena  of  the 
courts,  where  some  of  the  choicest  morceaux  of  genuine  Irish  wit 
were  uttered  by  Curran,  at  the  expense  of  his  rival,  first  as  Attor- 
ney-General, and  subsequently  as  Chancellor. 

The  session  of  1787  was  introduced  by  a  speech  from  the 
throne,  in  whtch  the  usual  paragraph  in  favor  of  the  Protestant 
Charter  Schools  was  followed  by  another  advising  the  establish- 
ment of  a  general  system  of  schools.  This  raised  the  entire 
question  of  education,  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  deal  with  in  the 
whole  range  of  Irish  politics.  On  the  10th  of  April,  Mr.  Orde, — 
destined  to  be  the  author  of  just,  but  short-lived  projects — intro- 
duced his  plan  of  what  might  be  called  national  education.  He 
proposed  to  establish  four  great  provincial  academies,  a  second 
university  in  some  north-western  county,  to  reform  the  twenty- 
two  diocesan  schools,  so  richly  endowed  under  the  28th  Henry 
VIII.,  and  to  affiliate  on  Trinity  College  two  principal  preparatory 
schools,  north  aud  south.  In  1784,  and  again  in  this  very  year, 
the  humane  John  Howard  had  reported  of  the  Irish  Charter 
Schools,  then  half  a  century  established,  that  they  were  "  a  di» 
grace  to  all  society."  Sir  J.  Fitzpatrick,  the  Inspector  of  Prisons, 
confirmed  the  general  impression  of  Howard :  he  found  the  chil- 
dren in  these  schools  "  puny,  filthy,  ill  clothed,  without  linen,  in- 
decent to  look  upon."  A  series  of  resolutions  was  introduced  by 
Mr.  Orde,  as  the  basis  of  butter  legislation  in  the  next  session; 
but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  proposed  reform  never  went  far- 
ther than  the  introduction  and  adoption  of  these  resolutions. 
The  session  of  1788  was  signalized  by  a  great  domestic  and  * 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  665 

great  imperial  discussion — the  Tithe  question,  and  the  Regency 
question. 

The  Tithe  question  had  slumbered  within  the  walls  of  parliament 
•ince  the  days  of  Swift,  though  not  in  the  lonely  lodges  of  the  se- 
cret agrarian  societies.  Very  recent  outbreaks  of  the  old  agrarian 
combinations  against  both  excessive  rents  and  excessive  tithes,  in 
the  Leinster  as  well  as  in  southern  counties,  had  called  general  at- 
tention to  the  subject,  when  Grattan,  in  1787,  moved  that,  if  it  should 
appear  by  the  commencement  of  the  following  session  that  tran- 
quillity had  been  restored  in  the  disturbed  districts,  the  House  would 
take  into  consideration  the  subject  of  tithes.  Accordingly,  very 
early  in  the  next  ensuing  session,  he  moved  for  a  committee  on 
the  subject,  in  a  three-hours'  speech,  which  ranks  among  the  very 
highest  efforts  of  his  own  or  any  other  age.  He  was  seconded  by 
Lord  Kingsborough,  one  of  the  most  liberal  men  of  his  order,  and 
sustained  by  Curran  and  Brownlow ;  he  was  opposed  by  Attorney- 
General  Fitzgibbon,  and  by  Messrs.  Hobart,  Browne  and  Parsons. 
The  vote  was,  for  the  Committee  of  Inquiry  49;  against  it,  121. 
A  second  attempt,  a  little  later  in  the  session,  was  equally  unsuc- 
cessful, except  for  the  moral  effect  produced  out  of  doors  by  an- 
other of  those  speeches,  which  it  is  impossible  to  read  even  at 
this  day,  without  falling  into  the  attitude,  and  assuming  the  into, 
nation,  and  feeling  the  heartfelt  inspiration  of  the  orator. 

The  Regency  question  was  precipitated  upon  both  parliament* 
by  the  mental  disorder,  which,  for  the  second  or  third  time,  at- 
tacked George  III.,  in  1788.  The  question  was, whether  the  Prince 
of  Wales  should  reign  with  as  full  powers  as  if  his  father  were 
actually  deceased;  whether  there  should  be  restrictions  or  no 
restrictions.  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  colleagues  contended  successfully 
for  restrictions  in  England,  while  Mr.  Fox  and  the  opposition 
took  the  contrary  position.  The  English  Houses  and  people  went 
with  Pitt,  but  the  Irish  Parliament  went  for  an  unconditional 
regency.  They  resolved  to  offer  the  crown  of  Ireland  to  him 
they  considered  de  facto  their  sovereign,  as  freely  as  they  had 
rendered  their  allegiance  to  the  incapable  king ;  but  the  Lord 
Lieutenant — the  Marquis  of  Buckingham — declined  to  transmit 
their  over-zealous  address,  and  by  the  tune  their  joint  delegation 
ef  both  Houses  reached  London,  George  III.  had  recovered  I 
56* 


000  rOFULAfi   BISTORT    O?   IRELAND. 

They  received  the  most  gracious  reception  at  Carlton  House,  bul 
they  incurred  the  implacable  enmity  of  William  Pitt,  and  creited 
a  second  determining  cause  in  his  mind  in  favor  of  an  early 
legislative  union. 

The  prospect  of  the  accession  of  the  prince  to  power,  -wrought 
a  wonderful  and  a  salutary  change,  though  temporary,  in  the  Irish 
Commons.  In  the  session  of  1789,  Mr.  Grattan  carried,  by  105  to 
85,  a  two  months',  in  amendment  to  a  twelve-months'  supply  bilL 
Before  the  two  months  expired  he  brought  in  his  police  bill,  hia 
pension  bill,  and  his  bill  to  prevent  officers  of  the  revenue  from 
voting  at  elections,  but  e'er  thea«  reforms  could  be  passed  into 
law,  the  old  king  recovered,  the  necessary  majority  was  reversed, 
and  the  measures,  of  course,  defeated  or  delayed  till  better  times. 
Tiie  triumph  of  'MG  oligarchy  was  in  proportion  to  their  fright. 
The  House  having  passed  a  vote  of  censure  on  Lord  Buckingham 
the  viceroy,  for  refusing  to  transmit  their  address  to  the  Regent, 
a  threat  was  now  held  out  that  every  one  who  had  voted  for  the 
censure,  holding  an  office  of  honor  oremolumeutin  Ireland, would 
be  made  "  the  victim  of  his  vote."  In  reply  to  this  threat  a 
"  Round  Robin,"  was  signed  by  the  Duke  of  Leinster.  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Timm,  eighteen  peers,  all  the  leading  Whig  commoners 
— the  Ponsonbys,  Langrishes,  Grattan,  Connolly,  Curran,  O'Neill, 
Day,  Charles  Francis  Sheridan,  Bowes  Daly,  George  Ogle,  etc.,  etc. 
— declaring  that  they  would  regard  any  such  proscription  as  an 
attack  on  the  independence  of  Parliament,  and  would  jointly 
oppose  any  administration  who  should  resort  to  such  proscription. 
But  the  bold  and  domineering  spirit  of  Fitzgibbon — the  leader  of 
the  Castle  party,  then,  and  long  afterwards — did  not  shrink  before 
even  so  formidable  a  phalanx.  The  Duke  of  Leinster  was  dis- 
missed from  the  honorary  office  of  Master  of  the  Rolls,  the  Earl 
of  Shannon,  from  the  Vice-Treasurership,  William  Ponsonby  from 
tlie  office  of  Postmaster  general,  Charles  Francis  Sheridan,  from 
that  of  Secretary  at  War,  and  ten  or  twelve  other  prominent 
members  of  the  Irith  administration  lost  places  and  pensions  tc 
the  value  of  £20,000  a  year,  for  their  over-zeal  for  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  At  the  same  time,  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  was  appointed  Lord 
Chancellor,  a  vacancy  having  opportunely  occured,  by  She  death 
of  Lord  Lifford,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  prescriptive  crisia 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OT   IRELAirD.  6dt 

This  elevation  transferred  him  to  the  Upper  House,  where  for  the 
remaining  years  of  the  Parliament  he  continued  to  dogmatize  and 
domineer,  as  he  had  done  in  the  Commons,  often  rebuked,  but  never 
abashed.  Indeed,  the  milder  manners  of  the  patrician  body  were 
ill  suited  to  resist  this  ermined  demagogue,  whose  motto  through 
life  was  audacity,  again  audacity,  and  always  audacity.  The  names 
of  Wolfe,  Toler,  Corry,  Coote,  Beresford,  and  Cooke,  are  also 
found  among  the  promotions  to  legal  and  administrative  office ; 
names  familiar  to  the  last  generation  as  the  pillars  of  the  oligar- 
chical faction,  before  and  after  the  Union.  To  swamp  the  oppo- 
sition peers,  the  Earls  of  Antrim,  Tyrone,  and  Hillsborough  were 
made  Marquises  of  Antrim,  Waterford,  and  Downshire ;  the  Vis- 
counts Glenawley,  Enniskillen,  Erne,  and  Carysfort,  were  created 
Earls  of  Annesley.Enniskillen.  Erne,  and  Carysfort.  Then  Judge 
Scott,  became  Viscount  Clonmel ;  then  the  Lordships  of  Loftus, 
Londonderry,  Kilmaine,  Cloncurry,  Mountjoy,  Glentworth,  and 
Caledon,  were  founded  for  as  many  convenient  Commoners,  who 
either  paid  for  their  patents,  in  boroughs,  or  in  hard  cash.  It 
was  the  very  reign  and  carnival  of  corruption,  over  which  pre- 
sided the  invulnerable  chancellor — a  true  "  King  of  Misrule."  In 
reference  to  this  appalling  spectacle,  well  might  Grattan  exclaim 
— "  In  a  free  country  the  path  of  public  treachery  leads  to  the 
block  ;  but  hi  a  nation  governed  like  a  province,  to  the  helm  I" 
But  the  thunders  of  the  orator  fell  and  were  quenched  in  the 
wide  spreading  waters  of  corruption. 

The  Whig  Club — an  out-of-door  auxiliary  of  the  opposition — 
was  a  creation  of  this  year.  It  numbered  the  chief  signers  of 
the  "  Round  Robin,"  and  gained  many  adherents.  It  exercised 
very  considerable  influence  in  the  general  election  of  1790,  and 
for  the  few  following  years,  until  it  fell  to  pieces  in  the  presence 
of  the  more  ardent  politics  which  preceded  the  storm  of  1798. 

Backed  though  he  was  by  Mr.  Pitt,  both  as  his  relative  and 
principal,  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  was  compelled  to  resign 
the  government,  and  to  steal  away  from  Dublin,  under  cover  of 
night,  like  an  absconding  debtor.  The  Chancellor  and  the  Spcake* 
— Fitzgibbon  and  Foster,  Irishmen  at  least  by  bi-th  and  in  nam« 
— were  sworn  in  as  Justices,  until  the  arriva]  of  the  Earl  of 
Westmoreland,  in  the  ensuing  January. 


66 §  FoPULAft  fliftTORY  OF 

The  two  last  viceroys  of  the  decade  thus  closed,  form  a  marked 
contrast  worthy  of  particular  portraiture.  The  Duke  of  Rutland, 
a  dashing  profligate,  wa«  sent  over,  it  was  thought,  to  ruin  pur  lit 
liberty  by  undermining  private  virtue,  a  task  in  which  he  found 
a  willing  helpmate  in  his  beautiful  but  dissipated  Duchess. 
During  his  three  years'  reign  were  sown  the  seeds  of  that  reckless 
private  expenditure,  and  general  corruption  of  manners,  which 
drove  so  many  bankrupt  lords  and  gentlemen  into  the  market 
overt,  where  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Secretary  Cooke,  a  dozen 
years  later,  pi-iced  the  value  of  their  parliamentary  cattle.  Lord 
Rutland  died  of  dissipation  at  little  over  thirty,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  (formerly  Lord  Temple), 
the  founder  of  the  Irish  Order  of  Chivalry,  a  person  of  the  great- 
est pretensions,  as  a  reformer  of  abuses  and  an  enemy  of  govern, 
ment  by  corruption.  Yet  with  all  his  affected  superiority  to  the 
b»se  arts  of  his  predecessor,  the  Marquis's  system  was  still  more 
opposite  to  every  idea  of  just  government,  than  the  Duke's.  The 
ore  outraged  public  morals,  the  other  pensioned  and  ennobled  the 
betrayers  of  public  trusts;  the  one  naturalized  the  gamingtable 
and  the  keeping  of  mistresses  as  customs  of  Irish  society ;  the 
other  sold  or  allowed  the  highest  offices  and  honors  of  the  state 
— from  a  weighership  in  the  butter  market  to  an  earl's  coronet — 
to  be  put  up  at  auction,  and  knocked  down  to  the  highest  bidder. 
How  cheering  in  contrast  with  the  shameful  honors,  flaunt«d 
abroad  in  those  shameful  days,  are  even  the  negative  virtues  of 
the  Whig  patricians,  and  how  splendid  the  heroic  constancy  of 
Charlemont,  Grattan,  Curran,  and  their  devoted  minority  of 
honest  legislators  I 

With  Lord  Westmoreland,  was  associated,  as  chief  secretary, 
Mr.  Hohnrt,  formerly  in  the  army,  a  man  of  gay,  convivial  habit* 
rery  accomplished,  and,  politically,  very  unprincipled.  These 
gentlemen,  both  favorites  of  Pitt,  adopted  the  councillors,  and 
continued  the  policy  of  the  late  viceroy.  In  pursuance  of  tlm 
policy  a  dissolution  took  place,  and  the  general  election  of  1790 
was  ordered.  We  have  already  exhibited  the  influences  which 
controlled  the  choice  of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Of 
the  one  hundred  and  five  groat  proprietors,  who  owned  two-thirdi 
of  the  si-atB,  perhaps  a  fourth  might  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  th« 


tOlTJLAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND^  C60 

Whig  club.  The  Only  other  hope  for  the  national  party  -^a«  in  the 
boroughs,  which  possessed  a  class  of  freemen,  engaged  in  trade, 
too  numerous  to  be  bought,  or  too  public  spirited  to  be  dictated 
to.  Both  influences  combined  might  hope  to  return  a  powerful 
minority,  and  on  this  occasion  (1790)  they  certainly  did  so.  Grat- 
tan  and  Lord  Henry  Fitzgerald  were  elected  for  Dublin,  over  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  one  of  the  Aldermen,  backed  by  the  whole  power 
of  the  Castle ;  Curran,  Ponsonby,  Brownlow,  Forbes,  and  nearly 
all  "  the  victims  of  their  vote,"  were  reflected.  To  these  old 
familiar  names  were  now  added  others  destined  to  equal  if  not 
still  wider  fame:  Arthur  Wellesley,  member  for  Trim,  Arthur 
O'Connor,  member  for  Phillipstown,  Jonah  Barrington,  member 
for  Tuam,  and  Robert  Stewart,  one  of  the  members  for  the  county 
Down,  then  only  in  his  twenty-second  year,  and,  next  to  Lord  Ed- 
ward Fitzgerald,  lately  elected  for  Athy,  the  most  extreme  reformer 
among  the  new  members.  Arthur  O'Connor,  on  the  other  hand, 
commenced  his  career  with  the  court  by  moving  the  address  in 
answer  to  the  speech  from  the  throne  ! 

The  new  Parliament  which  met  in  July,  1790,  unanimously  re- 
elected  Mr.  Foster,  Speaker ;  passed  a  very  loyal  address,  and  after 
a  fortnight's  sitting,  was  prorogued  till  the  following  January.  The 
session  of  '91  was  marked  by  no  event  of  importance ;  the  highest 
opposition  vote  seems  to  have  been  from  80  to  90,  and  the  minis- 
terial majority  never  less  than  60.  The  sale  of  Peerages,  the 
East  India  trade,  the  Responsibility  (for  money  warrants)  Bill, 
the  Barren  Lands  Bill,  and  the  Pension  Bill,  were  the  chief 
topics.  A  committee  to  inquire  into  the  best  means  of  encour- 
aging breweries,  and  discouraging  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors, 
was  also  granted,  and  some  curious  facts  elicited.  Nothing 
memorable  was  done,  but  much  that  was  memorable  was  said, 
— for  the  great  orator  had  still  a  free  press,  and  a  home  au- 
dience to  instruct  and  elevate.  The  truth  is,  the  barrenness 
of  these  two  sessions  was  due  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
ccuntry,  more  even  than  to  the  dexterous  management  of  Major 
Hobart  and  the  Cabinet  balls  of  Lord  Westmoreland.  Thx;re  was, 
moreover,  hanging  over  the  minds  of  men  the  electric  pressure 
of  the  wonderful  events  with  which  France  shook  the  continent 
and  made  the  Islands  tremble.  There  was  hasty  hope,  or  idle 


POPULAR   BISTORT   O»   IRKLAXD. 

exultation,  or  pious  fear,  or  panic  terror,  in  the,  hearts  of  the  le*(l 
ing  spectators  of  that  awful  drama,  according  to  fihe  prejudice! 
or  principles  they  maintained.  Over  all  the  three  kingdom* 
there  was  a  preternatural  calm,  resembling  that  physical  stillneM 
which  in  other  latitudes  precedes  the  eruption  of  volcanoes 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   ERA   OF   INDEPENDENCE — THIRD   PERIOD: CATHOLIC   RELIEF 

BILL  or  1793. 

BEFORE  relating  the  consequences  which  attended  the  spread 
of  French  revolutionary  opinions  in  Ireland,  it  is  necessary  to 
exhibit  the  new  and  very  important  position  assumed  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  population  at  that  period. 

The  relief  bills  in  1774  and  1778,  by  throwing  open  to  catholics 
the  ordinary  means  of  acquiring  property,  whether  movable  or 
immovable,  had  enabled  many  of  them  to  acquire  fortunes,  both 
in  land  and  in  trade.  Of  this  class  were  the  most  efficient  lead  • 
era  in  the  formation  of  the  Catholic  Committee  of  1790 — Johi 
Keogh,  Edward  Byrne,  and  Richard  McCormick.  They  were  all 
men  who  had  acquired  fortunes,  and  who  felt  and  cherished  tho 
independence  of  self-made  men.  They  were  not  simply  Catholio 
agitators  claiming  an  equality  of  civil  and  religious  risrhts  with 
their  Protestant  fellow-countrymen.;  they  were  nationalists,  in  the 
broadest  and  most  generous  meaning  of  the  term.  They  had  con- 
tributed to  the  ranks  and  the  expenses  of  the  Volunteers ;  they 
had  swelled  the  chorus  of  Grattan's  triumph,  and  borne  their 
nlwre  of  the  cost  in  many  a  popular  contest.  The  new  generation 
of  Psotestant  patriots — such  men  as  the  Hon.  Simon  Bulter, 
Wolfa  Tone,  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  were  thetr  intimate  asso- 
ciates, shared  their  opinions,  and  regarded  their  exclusion  from 
the  pale  of  the  constitution  as  a  public  calamity. 

Tnere  was  another  and  a  smaller,  but  not  less  important  clasa 
—the  remnant  of  the  ancient  Catholic  peerage  and  landed  gentry, 
Who,  throngh  four  generations,  had  preferred  civil  death  U>  ro 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OP    IRELAND.  67 1 

ligious  apostacy.  It  was  impossible  not  to  revere  the  heroic  con 
stancy  of  that  class,  and  the  personal  virtues  of  many  among 
them.  But  they  were,  perhaps  constitutionally,  too  timid  aud  too 
punctilious  to  conduct  a  popular  movement  to  a  successful  issue. 
They  had,  after  much  persuasion,  lent  their  presence  to  the  com- 
mittee, but  on  some  alarm,  which  at  that  time  seems  to  have  been 
premature,  of  the  introduction  of  French  revolutionary  princi- 
ples among  their  associates,  they  seceded  in  a  mass.  A  formal 
remonstrance  against  what  remained,  pretending  to  act  for  the 
Catholic  body,  was  signed  by  Lord  Kenmare  and  sixty-seven 
others,  who  withdrew.  As  a  corrective,  it  was  inadequate ;  as  a 
preventive,  useless.  It  no  doubt  hastened  in  the  end  the  evil 
it  deprecated  in  the  beginning ;  it  separated  the  Catholic  gentry 
from  the  Catholic  democracy,  and  thrust  the  latter  more  and  more 
towards  those  liberal  Protestants,  mainly  men  of  the  middle  class 
like  themselves,  who  began  about  this  time  to  club  together  at 
Belfast  and  Dublin,  under  the  attractive  title  of  "  United  Irish- 
men." "Whatever  they  were  individually,  the  union  of  so  many 
hereditary  Catholic  names  had  been  of  very  great  service  to  the 
committee.  So  long  as  they  stood  aloof,  the  committee  could  not 
venture  to  speak  for  all  the  Catholics ;  it  could  only  speak  for  a 
part,  though  that  part  might  be  nine  tenths  of  the  whole :  this 
gave  for  a  time  a  doubtful  and  hesitating  appearance,  to  their 
proceedings.  So  low  was  their  political  influence,  in  1791,  that 
they  could  not  get  a  single  member  of  Parliament  to  present 
their  annual  petition.  When  at  last  it  was  presented,  it  was 
laid  on  the  table  and  never  noticed  afterwards.  To  their 
further  embarrassment,  Mr.  McKenna  and  some  others  formed 
"  the  Catholic  Society,"  with  the  nominal  object  of  spreading  a 
knowledge  of  Catholic  principles,  through  the  press,  but,  covertly, 
to  raise  up  a  rival  organization,  under  the  control  of  the  seceders. 
At  this  period  John  Keogh's  talents  for  negotiation  and  diplo- 
macy saved  the  Catholic  body  from  another  term  of  anarchical 
imbecility. 

A  deputation  of  twelve,  having  waited  this  year  on  the  chief  sec. 
retary  with  a  list  of  the  existing  penal  laws,  found  no  intention,  at 
the  Castle,  of  further  concession.  They  were  "dismissed  without 
»"  answer."  Under  these  circumstances,  the  Committee  met  at 


673  POPULAR    HISTORY    07   IRELAND. 

Allen's  Court.  "  It  was  their  determination,"  siiya  Keogh,  "  to 
give  up  the  cause  as  desperate,  lest  a  perseverance  in  what  they 
considered  an  idle  pursuit  might  not  only  prove  ineffectual,  but 
draw  down  a  train  of  persecution  on  the  body."  Keogh  endeaT- 
ored  to  rally  them ;  proposed  a  delegation  to  London,  to  be  sent 
at  the  expense  of  the  committee ;  offered,  at  last,  to  go  at  his  own 
charge,  if  they  authorized  him.  This  proposal  was  accepted, 
and  Keogh  went.  "  I  arrived  in  London,"  he  adds,  "  without  any 
introduction  from  this  country,  without  any  support,  any  assist- 
ance, any  instructions."  He  remained  three  months,  converted 
Mr.  Dundas,  brought  back  with  him  the  son  of  Burke  as  secre- 
tary, and  a  promise  of  four  concessions:  1st.  The  magistracy. 
3d.  The  grand  juries.  3d.  The  sheriffs  of  counties.  4th.  The 
jar.  It  was  in  this  interview  that  Keogh,  after  obtaining  Mr. 
Dundas's  express  permission  and  promise  not  to  be  offended,  said 
to  him,  according  to  Charles  Butler's  account,  "  Since  you  give 
me  this  permission,  and  your  deliberate  promise  not  to  be  offended, 
I  beg  leave  to  repeat,  that  there  is  one  thing  which  you  ought  to 
know,  but  which  you  don't  suspect:  yon,  Mr.  Dundaa,  know 
nothing  of  Ireland."  Mr.  Dundas,  as  may  be  supposed,  was 
greatly  surprised ;  but  with  perfect  good  humor  told  Mr.  Keogh 
that  he  believed  this  was  not  the  case ;  it  was  true  that  he  never 
had  been  in  Ireland,  but  he  had  conversed  with  many  Irishmen. 
"  I  have  drunk,"  he  said  "  many  a  good  bottle  of  wine  with  Lord 
Ilillsborough,  Lord  Clare,  and  the  Beresfords."  "  Yes,  sir,"  said 
Mr.  Keogh,  "I  believe  you  have;  and  that  you  drank  many  a 
good  bottle  of  wine  with  them  before  you  went  to  war  with 
America." 

On  the  return  of  Keogh  to  Dublin,  a  numerous  meeting  was 
held  to  hear  his  report  At  this  meeting,  the  fair  promises  of 
the  English  ministers  were  contrasted  with  the  hostility  of  the 
Castle.  The  necessity  of  a  strong  organization,  to  overcome  the 
>•»«  and  hasten  the  ether,  was  felt  by  all :  it  was  then  decided  to 
•  me  committee  into  a  Convention.  By  this  plan,  the  Catholic* 
In  each  county  and  borough  were  called  on  to  choose,  in  &  private 
manner,  certain  electors,  who  were  to  elect  two  or  more  dele- 
gates, to  represent  the  town  or  county  in  the  general  meeting  at 
Dublin,  on  the  3d  day  of  December  following.  A  circular,  •igued 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  673 

by  Edward  Byrne,  chairman,  and  Richard  McCormick,  secretary 
explaining  the  plan  and  the  mode  of  election,  was  issued  on  th« 
14th  of  January,  aud  the  Catholics  everywhere  prepared  to 
obey  it. 

The  corporations  of  Dublin  and  other  cities,  the  grand  juries 
of  Derry,  Donegal,  Lei  trim,  Roscomrnon,  Limerick,  Cork,  and 
other  counties,  at  once  pronounced  most  strongly  against  the 
proposed  Convention.  They  declared  it  "  unconstitutional," 
"  alarming,"  "  most  dangerous ;"  they  denounced  it  as  a  copy  of 
the  National  Assembly  of  France ;  they  declared  that  they 
would  "  resist  it  to  the  utmost  of  their  power ;"  they  pledged 
"their  lives  and  fortunes"  to  suppress  it.  The  only  answer  of 
the  Catholics  was  the  legal  opinion  of  Butler  and  Burton,  two 
eminent  lawyers,  Protestants  and  King's  counsellors,  that  the 
measule  was  entirely  legal.  They  proceeded  with  their  selection 
of  delegates,  and  on  the  appointed  day  the  Convention  met. 
From  the  place  of  meeting,  this  convention  was  popularly  called 
"  the  Back  Lane  Parliament."  Above  200  members  were  present. 

The  Convention  proceeded  (Mr.  Byrne  in  the  chair)  to  declare 
itself  the  only  body  competent  to  speak  for  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land. They  next  discussed  the  substance  of  the  proposed  peti- 
tion to  the  king.  The  debate  on  this  subject,  full  of  life  and 
color,  has  been  preserved  for  us  in  the  memoirs  of  Tone,  who, 
although  a  Protestant,  had  been  elected  secietary  to  the  Catholic 
committee.  Great  firmness  was  exhibited  by  Teeling,  of  Antrim, 
Bellew,  of  Galway,  McDermott,  of  Sligo,  Devereux,  of  Wexford, 
Sir  Thomas  French,  and  John  Keogh.  These  ger.tlemen  con. 
tended,  and  finally  carried,  without  a  division,  though  not  with- 
out a  two-days'  debate,  a  petition  asking  complete  and  unrestricted 
emancipation.  With  tbe  addition  of  the  chairman  and  secretary, 
they  were  appointed  as  deputies  to  proceed  to  London,  there  to 
place  the  Catholic  ultimatum  in  the  hands  of  King  George. 

The  deputies,  whether  by  design  or  accident,  took  Belfast  on 
their  way  to  England.  This  great  manufacturing  town,  at  the 
head  of  the  staple  industry  of  the  north,  had  been  in  succession 
the  h  jadquarters  of  the  Volunteers,  the  Northern  Whigs  and  the 
United  Irishmen.  Bflf/ist  had  domardod  in  vain,  for  nearly* 
generation,  that  its  20,00!"'  inhabitants  should  no  longer  be  di* 
67 


674  POPULAR    BISTORT   OF   IRKLAHD. 

franchised,  while  a  dozen  burgesses— creatures  of  Lore  Donegal 
—  controlled  the  representation.  Community  of  disfranchis*- 
ment  had  made  the  Belfastians  liberal ;  the  Catholic  deputiei 
were  publicly  received  with  bonfires  and  ringing  of  bells,  their 
expenses  were  paid  by  the  citizens,  and  their  carriage  drawn 
along  in  triumph  on  the  road  to  Port  Patrick. 

Arrived  at  London,  after  much  negotiation  and  delay  with 
ministers,  a  day  was  fixed  for  their  introduction  to  the  king.  It 
was  Wednesday,  the  2d  of  January,  1793  ;  they  were  presented 
by  Edmund  Burke  and  the  Home  Secretary  to  George  III.,  who 
"  received  them  very  graciously;"  they  placed  in  his  hands  the 
petition  of  their  co-religionists,  and,  after  some  compliments, 
withdrew.  In  a  few  days,  they  were  assured  their  case  would 
be  recommended  to  the  attention  of  Parliament  in  the  next  royal 
speech,  and  so,  leaving  one  of  their  number  behind  as  "  charg£ 
d' iffaires,"  they  returned  to  Dublin  highly  elated. 

The  Ticeroy,  on  their  return,  was  all  attention  to  the  Catholics ; 
the  secretary,  who,  a  year  before,  would  not  listen  to  a  petition, 
now  labored  to  fix  a  limit  to  concession.  The  demand  of  com- 
plete emancipation,  was  not  maintained  in  this  negotiation  aa 
firmly  as  in  the  December  debates  of  "  the  Back  Lane  Parlia- 
ment." The  shock  of  the  execution  of  the  King  of  France ;  the 
efforts  of  the  secret  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  incul- 
pate certain  Catholic  leaders  in  the  United-Irish  system,  and  aa 
patrons  of  the  Defenders  ;  the  telling  argument,  that  to  press  all 
w»s  to  risk  all, —  these  causes  combined  to  induce  the  sub-com- 
mittee to  consent  to  less  than  the  Convention  Imd  decided  to  insist 
npon.  Negotiation  was  the  strong  ground  of  the  government, 
and  they  kept  it.  Finally,  the  bill  was  introduced  by  the  Chief 
Secretary,  and  warmly  supported  by  Orattan,  Cnrran,  Ponsonby, 
Forbes,  and  Hutchinson,  Provost  of  Trinity  College.  It  was  re- 
sisted in  the  lower  house  by  Mr.  Speaker  Foster,  Mr.  Ogle,  and 
Dr.  Duigenan,  an  apostate,  who  exhibited  all  the  bitterness  of  his 
class ;  and  in  the  upper  house,  by  the  Chancellor,  the  son  of  an 
apostate,  and  the  majority  of  the  lords  spiritual.  On  the  9th  day 
of  April,  1793;  it  became  the  law  of  Ireland.  "  By  one  compre- 
honfiive  clause."  says  Tone,  "  all  penalties,  forfeitures,  disabilities, 
and  incapacities  arc  removed ,  the  property  of  the  Catholic  u 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  675 

compleU'ly  discharged  from  the  restraints  and  limitations  of  the 
penal  laws,  and  their  liberty,  in  a  great  measure,  restored,  by  the 
restoration  of  the  right  of  elective  franchise,  so  long  withheld, 
so  ardently  pursued.  The  right  of  self-defence  is  established  by 
the  restoration  of  the  privilege  to  carry  arms,  subject  to  a  re- 
straint, which  does  not  seem  unreasonable,  as  excluding  none  but 
the  very  lowest  orders.  The  unjust  and  unreasonable  distinctions 
affecting  Catholics,  as  to  service  on  grand  and  petty  juries,  are 
done  away ;  the  army,  navy,  and  all  other  offices  and  places  of 
trust  are  opened  to  them,  subject  to  exceptions  hereafter  men- 
tioned. Catholics  may  be  masters  or  fellows  of  any  college  here- 
after to  be  founded,  subject  to  two  conditions,  that  such  college 
be  a  member  of  the  university,  and  that  it  be  not  fouaded  exclu- 
sively for  the  education  of  Catholics.  They  may  be  members  of 
any  lay  body  corporate,  except  Trinity  College,  any  law,  statute, 
or  by-law  of  such  corporation  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
They  may  obtain  degrees  in  the  University  of  Dublin.  These, 
and  some  lesser  immunities  and  privileges,  constitute  the  grant 
of  the  bill,  the  value  of  which  will  be  best  ascertained  by  refer- 
ring to  the  petition." 

It  is  true,  Catholics  were  still  excluded  from  the  high  offices  of 
lord  lieutenant,  lord  deputy,  and  lord  chancellor.  "What  was  much 
more  important,  they  were  excluded  from  sitting  in  Parliament — 
from  exercising  legislative  and  judicial  functions.  Still  the  fran- 
chise, the  juries,  the  professions,  and  the  university,  were  impor- 
tant concessions.  Their  first  fruits  were  Daniel  O'Connell  and 
Thomas  Moore ! 

The  committee  having  met  to  return  thanks  to  the  parliamen- 
tary supporters  of  the  bill,  their  own  future  operations  came  also 
under  debate.  Some  members  advised  that  they  should  add 
reform  to  their  programme,  as  the  remnant  of  the  penal  laws 
were  not  sufficient  to  interest  and  attract  the  people.  Some 
would  have  gone  much  further  than  reform ;  some  were  well  con- 
tent  to  rest  on  their  laurels.  There  were  ultras,  moderate  mon, 
and  conservatives,  even  in  the  twelve.  The  latter  were  more  nu- 
merous than  "Wolfe  Tone  liked  or  expected.  That  ardent  revolu- 
tionist had,  indeed,  at  bottom,  a  strong  dislike  of  the  Catholic 
religion  ;  he  united  himself  with  that  body  because  he  needed  a 


676  poruLJU  IIISTOBT  or  IRELAND. 

party;  he  remained  with  them  because  it  gave  him  importance; 
but  he  chiefly  valued  the  position  as  it  enabled  him  to  further  an 
ulterior  design — an  Irish  revolution  and  a  republic  on  the  French 
plan.  The  example  of  France  had,  however,  grown  by  this  time 
rather  a  terror  than  an  attraction  to  more  cautions  men  than 
Tone.  Edward  Byrne,  Sir  Thomas  French,  and  other  leading 
Catholics,  were  openly  hostile  to  any  imitation  of  it,  and  the 
dinner  at  Daly's,  to  celebrate  the  passage  of  the  act,  was  strongly 
anti-Gallican  in  spirit  and  sentiment.  Keogh,  McCormick,  and 
McXevin,  however,  joined  the  United  Irishmen,  and  the  two  lat- 
ter were  placed  on  the  Directory.  Keogh  withdrew,  when,  in 
1795,  that  organization  became  a  secret  society. 

The  bishops  who  had  cheered  on,  rather  than  participated  in 
the  late  struggle,  were  well  satisfied  with  the  new  measure. 
They  were,  by  education  and  conviction,  conservatives.  Dr. 
Plunkett,  of  Menth,  Dr.  Egan,  of  Waterford,  Dr.  Troy,  of  Dub- 
lin, and  Dr.  Moylan,  of  Cork,  were  the  most  remarkable  for  influ- 
ence and  ability  at  this  period.  Dr.  Butler,  of  Cashel,  and  his 
opponent,  Dr.  Burke,  of  Ossory,  the  head  of  the  resolute  old 
ultramontane  minority,  were  both  recently  deceased.  With  tho 
exception  of  Dr.  James  Butler,  bishop  of  Cloyne  and  Ross,  who 
deserted  his  faith  and  order  on  becoming  unexpectedly  heir  to  an 
earldom,  the  Irish  prelates  of  the  reign  of  George  III.  were  a  most 
zealous  and  devoted  body.  Lord  Dunboyne's  fall  was  the  only 
cause  of  a  reproach  within  their  own  ranks.  That  unhappy  pre- 
late made,  many  years  afterwards,  a  death-bed  repentance,  was 
reconciled  to  his  church,  and  bequeathed  a  large  part  of  his  inher- 
ited wealth  to  sustain  the  new  national  college,  the  founding  of 
which,  ever  since  the  outbreak  of  the  French  revolution,  the  far 
aeein£  Burke  was  urging  upon  Pitt  and  all  his  Irish  correspond- 
ents. 

In  1794,  the  Irish  bishops  having  applied  for  "«  royal  license" 
to  establish  academies  pnd  seminaries,  were  graciously  received, 
and  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  government  the  next  session  brought  in 
the  Act  of  Incorporation.  It  became  law  on  the  5th  of  June, 
1795,  and  the  college  was  opened  the  following  October  with  fifty 
•Indents.  Dr.  ITusscy.  afterwards  bishop  of  Waterford,  tho  friend 
of  Burke,  who  stood  by  his  death-bed,  was  first  President  som« 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  677 

refugee  French  divines  were  appointed  to  professorships ;  and 
the  Irish  Parliament  voted  the  very  handsome  sum  of  £8,000  a 
year  to  the  new  foundation.  Maynooth,  whatever  its  after  lot, 
was  the  creation  in  the  first  instance  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
We  have  thus,  in  the  third  century  after  the  reformation,  after 
three  great  religious  wars,  after  four  confiscations,  after  the  most 
Ingenious,  cruel,  and  unchristian  methods  of  oppression  and 
proselytism,  had  been  tried  and  had  failed,  the  yrand  spectacle  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  restored,  if  not  fully,  yet  to  the  most 
precious  of  the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of  a  people  I  So 
powerless  against  conscience  is  and  ever  must  be  coercion ! 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    KEA    OF    INDEPENDENCE. EFFECTS    OF    THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION 

IN1     IRELAND. SECESSION     OF  GRATTAN,  CUKEAN,  AND  THEIR  FRIENDS, 

FROM  PARLIAMENT,    IN    1797. 

THE  ERA  OF  INDEPENDENCE  which  we  have  desired  to  mark  dis- 
tinctly to  the  reader's  mind,  may  be  said  to  terminate  in  1797, 
with  the  hopeless  secession  of  Grattan  and  his  friends  from  Par- 
liament. Did  the  events  within  and  without  the  house  justify 
that  extreme  measure?  We  shall  proceed  to  describe  them  as 
they  arose,  leaving  the  decision  of  the  question  to  the  judgment 
of  the  reader. 

The  session  of  1 793,  which  extended  into  July,  was,  besides  the 
Catholic  Relief  Bill,  productive  of  other  important  results.  Under 
the  plea  of  the  spread  of  French  principles,  and  the  wide-spread 
organization  of  seditious  associations — a  plea  not  wanting  in  evi- 
dence— an  Arms  Act  was  introduced  and  carried,  prohibiting  the 
Importation  of  arms  and  gunpowder,  and  authorizing  domiciliary 
visits,  at  any  hour  of  the  night  or  day,  in  search  of  such  arm*. 
Within  a  month  from  the  passage  of  this  bill,  bravely  but  vainly 
opposed  by  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  the  opposition  gener- 
ally, the  surviving  Volunteer  corps,  in  Dublin  and  its  vicinity, 
57* 


678  POPULAR    HISTORT    OF   IRBLAMD. 

disbanded,  their  arms,  artillery,  and  ammunition  taken  posGbasloa 
of  either  by  force  or  negotiation,  and  the  very  wreck  of  that  one* 
poworful  patriot  army  s*ept  away.  In  its  stead,  by  nearly  the 
Miii i n-  majority,  the  militia  were  increased  to  16,000  men,  and  the 
regulars  from  12,000  to  17,000 — thus  placing  at  the  absolute  con- 
trol of  the  coruuiandcr-in  chief,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  oligarchy,  a 
standing  army  of  33,000  men.  At  the  same  period,  Lord  Clare  (he 
had  bceu  made  an  earl  in  1792),  introduced  his  Convention  Act, 
against  the  assemblage  in  convention  of  delegates  purporting  to 
represent  the  people.  With  G  rattan  only  27  of  the  Commons 
divided  against  this  measure,  well  characterized  as  "  the  boldest 
step  that  ever  yet  was  made  to  Introduce  military  government" 
"  If  this  bill  had  been  law,"  G  rattan  added,  "  the  independence  of 
the  Irish  Parliament,  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  and  even 
the  English  revolution  of  1688,  could  never  have  taken  place  P 
The  teller  in  favor  of  the  Convention  Act  was  Major  Wellesley, 
member  for  Trim,  twenty  years  later — Duke  of  Wellington  1  It 
became  and  still  remains  the  law  of  Ireland. 

Against  this  reactionary  legislation  we  must  credit  the  session 
of  '93,  besides  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill  and  the  East  India  Trade 
Bill,  with  Mr.  H rattan's  Barren  Lands  Bill,  exempting  all  newly 
reclaimed  lands  from  the  payment  of  tithes  for  a  period  of  seven 
years;  Mr.  Forbes's  Pension  Bill,  limiting  the  pension  list  to 
£80,(  iOi)  sterling  per  annum,  and  fixing  the  permanent  civil  list 
at  £250,000  per  annum ;  and  the  excellent  measure  of  the  same  in- 
valuable member,  excluding  from  parliament  all  persons  holding 
offices  of  profit  under  the  crown,  except  the  usual  ministerial  offi- 
cers, and  those  employed  in  the  revenue  service.  This  last  salvo  was 
forced  i^a  the  bill  by  the  oligarchical  faction,  for  whose  junior 
branohlHne  revenue  had  long  been  a  fruitful  source  of  provision. 

Parliament  met  next,  on  the  21st  of  January,  '94,  and  held  • 
•hurt  two-months'  session.  The  most  remarkable  incidents  of 
these  two  months  were  the  rejection  of  Mr.  George  Ponsonby'a 
annual  motion  for  parliamentary  reform,  and  the  sti  iking  posi- 
tion taken  by  (JuitUn,  Curran,  and  all  but  seven  or  eight  of  their 
friends,  in  favor  of  the  war  agaiirst  the  French  republic.  MO 
Ponsonby  proposed,  in  the  spirit  of  Flood's  plan  ten  years  earlie% 
to  unite  to  the  boroughs  four  railed  square  of  the  adjoining  cona 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  679 

try,  thus  creating  a  counterpoise  to  the  territorial  aristocracy  oq 
the  one  hand,  and  the  patrons  of  boroughs  on  the  other ;  he  also 
proposed  to  extend  the  suffrage  to  every  tradesman  who  had 
served  five  years'  apprenticeship,  and  give  each  county  three  in- 
stead of  two  members,  leaving  intact,  of  course,  the  forty-shilling 
freehold  franchise.  Not  more  than  44  members,  however,  divided 
in  favor  of  the  new  project,  while  142  voted  against  it !  Had  it 
passed,  the  parliamentary  history  of  the  next  six  years  could  never 
have  been  written. 

It  was  on  this  Reform  bill,  and  on  the  debate  on  the  address, 
that  Grattan  took  occasion  to  declare  his  settled  and  unalterable 
hostility  to  those  "  French  principles,"  then  so  fashionable  with 
all  who  called  themselves  friends  of  freedom,  in  the  three  king- 
doms.  In  the  great  social  schism  which  had  taken  place  in  Eu 
rope,  in  consequence  of  the  French  revolution  of  1789-'91,  those 
kingdoms,  the  favorite  seat  of  free  inquiry,  and  free  discussion, 
could  not  hope  to  escape.  The  effects  were  visible  in  every  circle, 
among  every  order  of  men ;  in  all  the  churches,  workshops, 
saloons,  professions,  into  which  men  were  divided.  Amorg  pub- 
licists, most  of  all,  the  shock  was  most  severely  felt :  in  England 
it  separated  Burke  and  Windham  from  Fox,  Erskine,  Sheridan, 
and  Grey ;  in  Ireland  it  separated  Grattan  and  Curran  from  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  Arthur  O'Connor,  Addis  Emmett,  "Wolfe  Tone, 
and  all  those  ardent,  able,  and  honest  men,  who  hailed  the  French, 
as  the  forerunner  of  a  complete  series  of  European  republics,  in 
which  Ireland  should  shine  out,  among  the  brightest  and  the  best. 

Orn^nn,  who  agreed  with  and  revered  Burke,  looked  upon  th« 
"  auti-Jacobic  war,"  as  a  just  and  necessary  war.  It  was  not  in 
his  nature  to  do  anything  by  halves,  and  he  therefore  cordially 
supported  the  paragraph  in  the  address  pledging  Ireland's  sup- 
port to  that  war.  He  was  a  constitutionalist  of  the  British,  not 
of  the  French  type.  In  the  subsequent  Reform  debate  he  declared 
that  he  would  always  and  ever  resist  those  who  sought  to  remodel 
the  Irish  constitution  on  a  French  original.  He  asserted,  more- 
over, that  great  mischief  had  been  already  done  by  the  advocates 
of  such  a  design.  "  It" — this  design — "  has  thrown  back  for  the 
present  the  chance  of  any  rational  improvement  in  the  represent- 
ation of  the  people,"  he  cried,  "  and  has  betrayed  >  good  reform 


680  *OFULAB   HISTOBT   Of  I&BLAKO. 

to  the  hopes  of  a  shabby  insurrection.''  Proceeding  in  his  own  coa- 
deiised,  cry-ialline  antithesis,  he  thus  enlarged  on  his  own  opin 
ions :  "  There  are  two  characters  equally  enemies  to  the  reform 
of  parliament,  and  equally  enemies  to  the  government — the  level- 
ler of  the  constitution  and  the  friend  of  its  abuses  ;  they  take 
different  roads  to  arrive  at  the  same  end.  The  levellers  propose 
to  subvert  the  king  and  parliamentary  constitution  by  a  rank  and 
unqualified  democracy — the  fiends  of  its  abused  propose  to  sup- 
port the  king  and  buy  the  parliament,  and  in  the  end  to  overset 
both,  by  a  rank  and  avowed  corruption.  They  arc  both  incendi- 
aries ;  the  one  would  destroy  government  to  pay  his  court  to 
liberty  ;  the  other  would  destroy  liberty  to  pay  his  court  to  gov- 
ernment ;  but  the-  liberty  of  the  one  would  be  confusion,  and  the 
government  of  the  other  would  be  pollution." 

We  can  well  understand  that  this  language  pleased  as  little  the 
United  Irishmen  as  the  Castle.  It  was  known  that  in  private  he 
was  accustomed  to  say,  that  "  the  wonder  was  not  that  Mr.  Sheare* 
should  die  on  the  scaffold,  but  that  Lord  Clare  was  uot  there  be- 
side him."  He  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  ways,  crying  aloud, 
with  the  wisdom  of  his  age  and  his  genius,  but  there  were  few  to 
heed  his  warnings.  The  sanguine  innovator  sneered  or  pitied ; 
the  truculent  despot  scowled  or  menaced;  to  tho  one  hfe  authority 
was  an  impediment,  to  the  other  his  reputation  was  a  reproach. 
It  was  a  public  situation  as  full  of  conflict  as  man  erer  occupied, 
and  we  ore  not  astonished,  on  a  nearer  view,  that  it  led  after  three 
years  hoping  against  hope,  to  the  despairing  secession  of  1797. 

A  bright  gleam  of  better  things  shot  for  an  mutant  across  the 
gloomy  prospect,  with  which  the  year  '94  closed  for  the  country. 
Lord  Westmoreland  was  recalled,  and  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  largely 
connected  with  Ireland  by  property,  and  one  of  the  most  just  and 
liberal  men  in  England,  was  to  be  his  successor.  The  highest 
•jxpectations  were  excited  ;  the  be«t  men  congratulated  each  other 
on  the  certain  promise  of  bettA  times  close  at  hand ;  and  the 
nation,  ever  ready  to  believe  whatever  it  wished  to  believe,  saw 
in  protect,  the  oligarchy  restrained,  the  patriots  triumphant,  and 
the  unfinished  fabric  of  independence  completed,  and  crowned 
with  honor. 

This  new  reign,  though  one  of  the  shortest,  was  one  of  th* 


POPULAR    HISTORY  <OF    1KELAKD.  081 

toost  important  Ireland  ever  saw.  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  the  nephew 
of  Lord  Rockingham,  the  first  to  acknowledge  the  constitution  of 
1782,  had  married  a  Ponsonby ;  he  was  a  Burke  whig — one  of 
those  who,  with  the  Duke  of  Portland,  Earl  Spencer,  and  Mr 
"VVindham,  had  followed  the  "  great  Edmund,"  in  his  secession 
from  the  Fox-and-Sheridan  majority  of  that  party,  in  1791,  Pitt. 
anxious  to  conciliate  these  new  allies,  had  brought  them  all  into 
office  ui  1794 — Earl  Fitzwilliam  being  placed  in  the  dignified 
position  of  President  of  the  Council.  When  spoken  of  for  the. 
viceroyalty  he  wrote  to  G rattan,  bespeaking  his  support,  and 
that  of  "  his  friends,  the  Ponsonbys  ;"  this  letter  and  some  others 
brought  Grattan  to  London,  where  he  had  two  or  three  inter- 
views with  Pitt,  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and  Lord  Fitzwilliam. 
Better  still,  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Beaconsfield,  and  had  the 
benefit  of  the  last  advice  of  the  aged  Burke.  With  Pitt  he  was 
disappointed  and  dissatisfied,  but  he  still  hoped  and  expected 
great  good  from  the  appointment  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam  to  the  office 
of  viceroy.  It  seems  to  have  been  fully  understood  that  the  new 
Lord  Lieutenant  would  have  very  full  powers  to  complete  the  gra- 
cious work  of  Catholic  emancipation :  with  this  express  under- 
standing, Mr.  Grattan  was  pressed  to  accept  the  Chancellorship 
of  the  Exchequer,  but  steadily  declined ;  he  upheld  in  that  posi- 
tion Sir  Henry  Parnell,  an  old  personal,  lather  than  political  friend, 
one  of  a  family  of  whom  Ireland  has  reason  to  retain  a  grateful 
recollection.  He  was,  however,  with  Ponsonby,  Curran,  and 
others  of  his  friends  in  both  houses,  added  to  the  privy  council, 
•where  they  were  free  to  shape  the  measures  of  the  new  adminis- 
tration. At  the  king's  levee,  on  the  10th  of  December,  when 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  sworn  in,  the  aged  Burke  in  deep  mourning 
for  his  idolized  son,  attended ;  Grattan  was  so  much  spoken  to  by 
the  king  as  to  draw  towards  him  particular  attention  ;  Mr.  Pitt 
th"  Duke  of  Portland,  and  other  ministers,  were  present.  All 
took  and  held  the  tone  that  complete  emancipation  was  a  thing 
Bottled :  Bnrke  congratulated  Grattan  on  the  event,  and  the  new 
viceroy  was  as  jubilant  and  as  confident  as  anybody,  that  the 
great  controversy  was  at  length  to  be  finally  closed  under  hia 
•usp'co  i. 

On  the  4.th  of  January,  Lord  Fitzwilliam  reached  Dublin ;  and 


682  POPULAR   HI8TOBT    07  IKKLAHD. 

on  the  25th  of  March  he  was  recalled.  The  history  of  these  thn.« 
months — of  this  short-lived  attempt  to  govern  Ireland  on  the  ad- 
vice of  Gratban — is  full  ef  instruction.  The  viceroy  had  not  for 
a  moment  concealed  his  intention  of  thoroughly  reforming  the 
Irish  administration.  On  his  arrival  at  the  castle,  Mr.  Cooke  was 
removed  from  the  secretaryship,  and  Mr.  Beresford  from  the 
revenue  board.  Great  was  the  consternation,  and  unscrupulous 
the  intrigues  of  the  dismissed.  When  the  Parliament  met  at  the 
end  of  January,  Grattan  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  moved  the  address  in  answer  to  the  speech  from 
the  throne.  No  opposition  was  offered — and  it  passed  without  a 
division.  Immediately,  a  bill  granting  the  Catholics  complete 
emancipation — rendering  them  eligible  even  to  the  office  of  Chan- 
cellor, withheld  in  1829 — was  introduced  by  Grattan.  Then  the 
oligarchy  found  their  voices.  The  old  cry  of  "  the  Church  in 
danger  "  was  raised,  delegations  proceeded  to  London,  and  every 
agency  of  influence  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  king  and  the 
English  cabinet.  From  the  tenor  of  his  letters,  Lord  Fitzwilliam 
felt  compelled  in  honor  to  tell  Mr.  Pitt,  that  he  might  choose  be- 
tween him  and  the  Beresfords.  He  did  choose — but  not  till  the  Irisk 
Parliament,  in  the  exuberance  of  its  confidence  and  gratitude,  had 
voted  the  extraordinary  subsidy  of  20,000  men  for  the  navy,  and 
a  million,  eight  hundred  thousand  pound*,  towards  the  expenses  of 
the  war  with  fiance  I  Then,  the  popular  viceroy  was  recalled, 
amid  the  universal  regrets  of  the  people.  The  day  of  his  depart- 
ure  from  Dublin  was  a  day  of  general  mourning,  except  with  the 
oligarchical  clique,  whose  leaders  he  had  BO  resolutely  thrust 
aside.  To  them  it  was  a  day  of  insolent  and  unconcealed  rejoic- 
ing ;  and,  what  is  not  at  all  uncommon  under  such  cirumstances, 
the  infatuated  partisans  of  the  French  revolution,  rejoiced  hardly 
less  than  the  extremest  Tories,  at  the  sudden  collapse  of  a  gov- 
ernment equally  opposed  to  the  politics  of  both.  Grattan,  than 
whom  no  public  man  was  ever  more  free  from  unjust  suspicion  of 
ethers,  always  remained  under  the  conviction,  that  Pitt  had  made 
merely  a  temporary  use  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam'a  popularity,  in  order  to 
cheat  the  Irish  out  of  the  immense  supplies  they  had  voted  ;  and  all 
the  documents  of  the  day,  which  have  since  seen  the  light,  accord 
well  with  that  view  of  the  transaction.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  wu 


POPULAR   HiaTORT    OT   IRK1AKD.  683 

Immediately  replaced  by  Lord  Camdon,  whose  vicerojmlty  ex- 
terded  into  the  middle  of  the  year  1798  :  a  reign  which  embraced 
all  that  remains  to  us  to  narrate,  of  the  parliamentary  politics  of 
the  era  of  Tndependence. 

The  sittings  of  Parliament  were  resumed  during  April,  May, 
and  June,  but  the  complete  emancipation  bill  was  rejected  three 
to  one — 155  to  55  ;  the  debates  were  now  marked,  on  the  part  of 
Toler,  Duigenan,  Johnson  and  others,  with  the  most  violent  anti- 
Catholic  spirit.  All  this  tended  to  inflame  still  more  the  exasper- 
ated feeling  which  already  prevailed  in  the  country  between 
Orangemen  and  Defenders.  Thus  it  came,  that  the  High  Court 
of  Parliament  which  ought  to  have  been  the  chief  school  of  pub- 
lic wisdom — the  calm  correcting  tribunal  of  public  opinion — was 
made  a  principal  engine  in  the  dissemination  of  those  prejudices 
and  passions,  which  drove  honest  men  to  despair  of  constitutional 
redress,  and  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  secret  political  societies,  till 
they  became  coextensive  with  the  population. 

The  session  of  1796  was  even  more  hopeless  than  the  immedi- 
ately preceding  one.  A  trade  motion  of  Grattan's  on  the  address 
commanded  only  14  votes  out  of  140 ;  in  the  nest  session  his 
motion  in  favor  of  equal  rights  to  persons  of  all  religious  creeds, 
obtained  but  12  votes  out  of  160  I  From  these  figures  it  is  clear 
that  above  a  third  of  the  members  of  the  House  no  longer  at- 
tended ;  that  of  those  who  did  attend,  the  overwhelming  and 
invariable  majority — ten  to  one — were  for  all  the  measures  of  re- 
pression and  coercion  which  marked  these  two  sessions.  The 
Insurrection  Act,  giving  power  to  the  magistrates  of  any  county 
to  proclaim  martial  law ;  the  Indemnity  Act  protecting  magis- 
trates from  the  consequences  of  exercising  "  a  vigor  beyond  the 
law  ;"  the  Riot  Act,  giving  authority  to  disperse  any  number  of 
persons  by  force  of  arms  without  notice  ;  the  Suspension  of  the 
habeas  corpus  (against  which  only  7  members  out  of  a  house  of 
164  voted) — all  were  evidences  to  Grattan,  that  the  usefulness  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  as  then  constituted,  was,  for  the  time, 
lost  or  destroyed.  It  is  quite  clear  that  he  came  to  this  convic- 
tion slowly  and  reluctantly ;  that  he  struggled  against  it  with 
manly  fortitude  through  three  sessions  ;  that  he  yielded  to  it  al 
length,  when  there  was  no  longer  a  possibility  of  resistance,— « 


584  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 

when  lo  move  or  to  divide  the  House,  l.ad  become  a  wretched 
farce,  humiliating  to  the  country  and  unworthy  of  his  own  earnest 
and  enthusiastic  patriotism. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  powerless  leader  and  his  devoted 
staff  resolved  to  withdraw,  formally  and  openly,  froit  further 
attendance  on  the  House  of  Commons.  The  deplorable  stat*  of 
the  country,  delivered  over  to  an  irresponsible  magistracy  and  all 
the  horrors  of  martial  law ;  the  spread  among  the  patriotic  rising 
generation  of  French  principles ;  the  scarcely  concealed  design 
of  the  Castle  to  goad  the  people  into  insurrection,  in  order  to 
deprive  them  of  their  liberties  ;  all  admonished  the  faithnd  few 
that  the  walls  of  Pnrlhment  were  no  longer  their  sphere  of  use- 
fulness. One  lasi  trial  was,  however,  made  in  May,  1797,  for  a 
reform  of  Parliament  Mr.  George  Ponsonby  moved  his  usual 
motion,  and  Curran,  Hardy,  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons,  Charles  Ken- 
dall Bushe,  and  others,  ably  supported  him.  The  division  was 
30  to  117.  It  was  on  this  debate,  that  G  rattan,  whose  mournful 
manner  contrasted  so  strongly  with  his  usual  enthusiasm,  con- 
cluded a  solemn  exposition  of  the  evils  the  administration  were 
bringing  on  the  country,  by  these  affecting  words :  "  We  have 
offered  you  our  measure — you  will  reject  it ;  we  deprecate  yours— 
you  will  persevere ;  having  no  hopes  left  to  persuade  or  to  dis- 
suade, and  having  discharged  our  dutv,  we  shall  trouble  you  no 
more,  and  after  tfiis  day  Khali  not  attend  tiie  House  of  Commons.9 
The  secession  thus  announced  was  accomplished  ;  at  the  general 
election  two  months  later,  G  rattan  and  his  colleague,  Lord  Henry 
Fitzgerald,  refused  to  stand  again  for  Dublin  ;  Curran,  Lord  Ed- 
ward Fitzgerald,  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  others,  followed  hU 
example.  A  few  patriots  hoping  against  hope,  were,  however, 
returned,  a  sort  of  forlorn  hope,  to  man  the  last  redoubt  of  the 
Constitution.  Of  these  was  William  Conyngham  Plunkett,  mcm- 
her  for  Charleraont,  Grattan's  old  borough,  a  constitutionalist  of 
the  school  of  Edmund  Burke,  worthy  to  'jo  named  among  the 
moat  illustrious  of  his  disciples. 

In  the  siuno  July,  on  the  7th  of  the  month,  on  which  the  Irish 
elections  were  held,  that  celebrated  Anglo-Irish  statesman  expired 
at  Reaconsfield,  in  the  rixtv-scvcnth  jcar  of  his  age.  Hid  last 
thoughts — his  last  wishes,  like  his  first — were  with  his  native 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  885 

land.  His  regards  continued  fixed  on  the  state  of  Ireland,  while 
vision  and  faculty  remained.  His  last  efforts  in  writing  and  eon 
versation  were  to  plead  for  toleration,  concession  and  concilia- 
tion towards  Ireland.  The  magisterial  gravity  of  Burke  was 
not  calculated  to  permit  him  to  be  generally  popular  with  an  im- 
piilaive  people,  but  an  years  roll  on,  and  education  extends  its 
dominion,  his  reputation  rises  and  brightens  u*bove  every  other 
reputation  of  his  age,  British  or  Irish.  Of  him  no  less  truly 
than  powerfully  did  Grattan  say  in  the  Imperial  Parliament,  in 
1815 :  "lie  read  everything,  he  saw  everything,  he  foresaw  every- 
thing. His  knowledge  of  history  amounted  to  a  power  of  fore- 
telling ;  and  \vhen  he  perceived  the  wild  work  that  was  doing  in 
France,  tliat  great  political  physician,  intelligent  of  symptoms, 
distinguished  between  the  access  of  fever  and  the  force  of  health ; 
and  what  other  men  conceived  to  be  the  vigor  of  her  constitu- 
tion, he  knew  to  be  no  more  than  the  paroxysm  of  her  madness ; 
and  then,  prophet-like,  he  denounced  the  destinies  of  France,  and 
in  his  prophetic  fury,  admonished  nations." 


CHAPTER 

THE     UNITED     IRISHMEN. 

HALF  measures  of  justice  may  satisfy  the  generation  which 
achieves  them,  but  their  successors  will  look  with  other  eyes,  as 
well  on  what  has  been  won  as  on  that  which  is  withheld.  The 
part  in  possession  will  appear  to  their  youthful  sense  of  abstract 
right  and  wrong  far  less  precious  than  the  part  in  expectancy, 
for  it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  young  to  look  forward,  as  it  is  of  thf 
old  to  turn  their  regards  to  the  past.  The  very  recollection  of 
their  fathers  will  stimulate  the  new  generation  to  emulate  their 
example,  and  will  render  them  averse  to  being  bound  by  former 
compromises.  So  necessary  is  it  for  statesmen,  when  (hey  vield 
to  a  just  demand  long  withheld,  to  yield  gracefully  and  to  yield 
til  *hat  tn  fairly  due. 

The  celebrated  group  known  to  u«  as  "  the  United  Irishmen,* 


686  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRIUUTD. 

were  the  birth  of  a  new  generation,  entering  together  on  the  p*  tx 
lie  stage.  With  few  exceptions,  the  leading  characters  were  all 
born  within  a  few  years  of  each  other:  Neilson  in  1761,  Tone 
Arthur  O'Connor  and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  in  '62,  McNevin  ii 
'63.  Sampson  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmett  in  '64,  and  Russell  iu 
67.  They  bad  emerged  into  manhood  while  the  drums  of  the 
Volunteers  were  beating  victorious  marches,  when  the  public 
hopes  ran  high,  and  the  language  of  patriotism  was  the  familiar 
speech  of  every-day  life. 

In  a  settled  state  of  society  it  would  have  been  natural  for  the 
first  minds  of  the  new  generation  to  carrj^  their  taleute,  gratefully 
and  dutifully,  into  the  service  of  the  first  reputations  of  the  old ; 
but  Irish  society,  in  the  hist  years  of  the  last  century,  was  not  in 
a  settled  condition ;  the  fascination  of  French  example,  and  the 
goading  sense  of  national  wrongs  only  half-lighted,  inflamed  the 
younger  generation  with  a  passionate  thirst  for  speedy  and  sum- 
mary justice  on  their  oppressors.  We  must  not  look,  therefore, 
to  see  the  Tones  and  Emmetts  continuing  in  the  constitutional 
line  of  public  conduct  marked  out  by  Burke  in  the  one  kingdom, 
and  G  rattan  in  the  other.  The  new  age  was  revolutionary,  and 
the  new  men  were  filled  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Their  actions 
Btand  apart ;  they  form  an  episode  in  tli«  history  of  the  century 
to  which  there  may  be  parallels,  but  a  chapter  in  the  history  of 
their  own  country  original  and  alone. 

The  United  Irish  Society  sprung  up  at  Belfast  in  October,  1791. 
In  that  monf  h,  Theobold  Wolfe  Tone,  then  in  his  28th  year,  a 
native  of  Kildare,  a  member  of  the  bar,  and  an  excellent  popular 
pamphleteer,  on  a  visit  to  his  friend  Thomas  Russell,  in  the  north- 
ern capital,  was  introduced  to  Samuel  Neilson,  proprietor  of  the 
Northern  Star  newspaper,  and  several  other  kindred  spirit*,  all 
•I  nindi  reformers,  or  "  something  more."  Twenty  of  these  gen. 
tbrnen  meeting  together,  adopted  a  programme  prepared  by  Tone, 
which  contained  these  three  simple  propositions:  that  "English 
influence  "  was  the  great  danger  of  Irish  liberty ;  that  a  reform 
of  parliament  could  alone  create  a  counterpoise  to  that  influence  • 
and  that  such  a  reform  to  be  just  should  include  Irishmen  of  all 
religion*  denomination}.  On  Tone's  return  to  Dublin,  early  in 
Kovember,  a  branch  society  was  formed  on  the  Belfast  baaia, 


POPULAR   BISTORT   OF   IRELAND.  $87 

The  Hon.  Simon  Butler,  a  leading  barrister,  was  c  hosen  chairman, 
and  Mr.  Napper  Tandy,  an  active  middle-aged  merchant,  with 
strong  republican  principles,  was  secretary.  The  solemn  decla- 
ration or  oath,  binding  every  member  "  to  forward  a  brotherhood 
of  affection,  an  identity  of  interests,  a  communion  of  rights,  and. 
a  union  of  power  among  Irishmen  of  all  religious  persuasions," 
was  drawn  up  by  the  Dubliu  club,  and  became  the  universal 
bond  of  organization.  Though  the  Belfast  leaders  had  been  long 
in  the  habit  of  meeting  in  "  secret  committee,"  to  direct  and  con- 
trol the  popular  movements  in  their  vicinage,  the  new  society 
was  not,  in  its  inception,  nor  for  three  years  afterwards,  a  secret 
society.  When  that  radical  change  was  proposed,  we  find  it  re- 
sisted by  a  considerable  minority,  who  felt  themselves  at  length 
compelled  to  retire  from  an  association  the  proceedings  of  which 
they  could  no  longer  approve.  In  justice  to  those  who  remained, 
adopting  secrecy  as  their  only  shield,  it  must  be  said,  that  the 
freedom  of  the  press  and  of  public  discussion  had  been  repeatedly 
and  frequently  violated  before  they  abandoned  the  original  max- 
ims  and  tactics  of  their  body,  which  were  all  open  and  above-board. 

In  1792,  Simon  Butler,  and  Oliver  Bond — a  prosperous  Dublin 
merchant  of  northern  origin — were  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  condemned  to  six  months'  imprisonment,  and  a 
fine  of  £500  each,  for  having  acted  as  chairman  and  secretary  of 
one  of  the  meetings,  at  which  an  address  to  the  people,  strongly 
reflecting  on  the  corrupt  constitution  of  Parliament,  was  adopted. 
In  '94,  Archibald  Hamilton  Rowan,  one  of  the  purest  and 
most  chivalrous  characters  of  any  age,  was  convicted  by  a  packed, 
jury  of  circulating  the  famous  "  Universal  Emancipation  "  address 
of  his  friend,  Dr.  William  Drennan,  the  poet-politician  of  the  party. 
He  was  defended  by  Curran,  in  the  still  more  famous  speech  in 
which  occurs  his  apostrophe  to  "  the  genius  of  Universal  Eman- 
cipation ;"  but  he  atoned  in  the  cells  of  Newgate,  for  circulating 
the  dangerous  doctrine  which  Drennan  had  broached,  and  Curran 
had  immortalized. 

The  regular  place  of  meeting  of  the  Dublin  society  was  th« 
Tailors'  Hall,  in  Back  Lane,  a  spacious  building,  called,  from 
the  number  of  great  popular  gatherings  held  in  it,  "  the  Back 
Lane  Parliament."  Here  Tandy,  in  the  uniform  of  his  new  National 


088  POPULAR    HISTORY    Of   IRELAND. 

Guard,  whose  standard  bore  the  harp  without  the  crown,  addreaced 
his  passionate  harangues  to  the  applaudiag  multitude ;  here,  Tone, 
whose  forte,  however,  was  not  oratory,  constantly  attended ;  here, 
also,  the  leading  Catholics,  Keogh  and  McCorinack,  the  "Gog" 
and  "  Magog,"  of  Tone's  extraordinary  Memoirs,  were  occasionally 
present.  And  here,  on  the  night  of  the  4th  of  May,  1794,  the  Dublin 
society,  found  themselves  suddenly  assailed  by  the  police,  their 
papers  seized,  their  officers  who  were  present  arrested,  and  their 
meeting  dispersed.  From  that  moment  we  may  date  the  new  and 
ktcrd  organization  of  the  brotherhood,  though  it  was  not  in  gen- 
eral operation  till  the  middle  of  the  following  year. 

This  new  organization,  besides  its  secresy,  had  other  revolu- 
tionary characteristics.  For  "  reform  of  Parliament,"  was  substi- 
tuted in  the  test,  or  oath,  representation  "  of  all  the  people  of 
Ireland,"  and  for  petitions  and  publications,  the  enrollment  of 
men,  by  baronies  and  counties,  and  the  appointment  of  officers, 
from  the  least  to  the  highest  in  rank,  as  in  a  regular  army.  The 
unit  was  a  lodge  of  twelve  members  with  a  chairman  and  secre- 
tary, who  were  also  their  corporal  and  sergeant ;  five  of  these 
lodges  formed  a  company,  and  the  officers  of  five  such  companies 
a  baronial  committee,  from  which  again,  in  like  manner,  tin-  county 
committees  were  formed.  Each  of  the  provinces  liad  its  Direct- 
ory, while  in  Dublin  the  supreme  authority  was  established,  in 
an  "  Executive  Directory"  of  five  members.  The  orders  of  the 
Executive  were  communicated  to  not  more  than  one  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Directors,  and  by  him  to  one  of  each  County  Committee, 
and  so  in  a  descending  scale  till  the  rank  and  file  were  readied ; 
an  elaborate  contrivance,  but  one  which  proved  wholly  insuffi- 
cient to  protect  the  secrets  of  the  organization  from  the  uhiquit 
cms  espionage  of  the  government 

Ii  May,  1795,  the  new  organization  lost  the  services  of  Wolfe 
Tone,  who  was  compromised  by  a  strange  incident,  t'  a  very 
serious  extent.  The  incident  was  the  arrest  and  trial  of  the  Rev. 
"Will 'mi ii  Jackson,  an  Anglican  clergyman,  who  had  imbibed  the 
opinions  of  Price  and  Priestley,  and  had  been  sent  to  Ireland  by 
the  French  Republic,  on  a  secret  embassy.  Betrayed  by  a  friend 
and  countryman  named  Cockayne,  the  unhappy  Jackson  book 
poison  in  prison,  and  expire!  in  the  dock.  Tone  h&'l  been  seea 


POPULAR    HISTOBY    OF   IRBLAUI).  689 

with  Jackson,  and  through  the  influence  of  his  friends,  was  alone 
protected  from  arrest.  He  was  compelled,  however,  to  quit  the 
country,  in  order  to  preserve  his  personal  liberty.  ITe  proceeded 
with  his  family  to  Belfast,  where  before  taking  shipping  for 
America,  he  renewed  with  his  first  associates,  their  vows  and 
projects,  on  the  summit  of  "  the  Cave  Hill,"  which  looks  down 
upon  the  rich  valky  of  the  Lag-gan,  and  the  noble  town  and  port 
at  its  outlet.  Before  quitting  Dublin,  he  had  solemnly  prom- 
ised Emmett  and  Russell,  in  the  first  instance,  as  he  did  his  Bel- 
fast friends  in  the  second,  that  he  would  make  the  United  States 
his  route  to  France,  where  he  would  negotiate  a  formidable  national 
alliance,  for  "  the  United  Irishmen." 

In  the  year  in  which  Tone  left  the  country,  Lord  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald, brother  of  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  and  formerly  a  Major  in 
the  British  army,  joined  the  society  ;  in  the  next  year — near  ita 
close — Thomas  Addis  Emmett,  who  had  long  been  in  the  confi- 
dence of  the  promoters,  joined ;  as  did,  about  the  same  time,  Arthur 
O'Connor,  nephew  of  Lord  Longueville,  and  ex-member  for  Phil- 
lipstown,  and  Dr.  William  James  McNevin,  a  Connaught  Catholic, 
educated  in  Austria,  then  practicing  his  profession  with  eminent 
success  in  Dublin.  These  were  felt  to  be  important  accessions, 
and  all  four  were  called  upon  to  act  on  "  the  Executive  Directory,* 
from  time  to  time,  during  1796  and  1797. 

The  coercive  legislation  carried  through  Parliamerrt,  session 
after  session — the  Orange  persecutions  in  Armagh  and  elsewhere 
— the  domiciliary  visits — the  military  outrages  in  town  and  coun- 
try— the  free  quarters,  whipping  and  tortures — the  total  suppres- 
sion of  the  public  press — the  bitter  disappointment  of  Lord  Fitz- 
william's  recall — the  annual  failure  of  Ponsonby's  motion  for 
reform — finally,  the  despairing  secession  of  Grattan  and  his  friends 
from  Parliament — had  all  tended  to  expand  the  system,  which  six 
years  before  was  confined  to  a  few  dozen  enthusiasts  of  Belfast 
and  Dublin,  into  the  dimensions  of  a  national  confederacy.  By 
the  close  of  this  year,  600,000  men  had  taken  the  test,  in  every 
part  of  the  country,  and  nearly  300,000  were  reported  as  armed, 
either  with  firelocks  or  pikes.  Of  this  total,  110,000  alone  were 
returned  for  Ulster  ;  about  60,000  for  Leinster,  and  the  remainder 
from  Connaught  and  Munster.  A  fund,  ludicrously  small,  £1,400 
58* 


600  POPULAR   HI6TORT   Of   IRE  LAUD, 

sterling,  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  after  all  tin 
outlay  which  had  taken  place,  in  procuring  arms,  in  extending 
the  union,  and  in  defending  prisoners  arrested  as  members  of  the 
society.  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  chosen  Commander-in-chief; 
but  the  main  reliance,  for  munitions,  artillery,  and  officers,  WM 
placed  upon  the  French  republic. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

WITH  > RANGE  AND  HOLLAND. — THE  THREE  EXPEDI- 
TIONS NEGOTIATED  BY  TONX  AND   LEWINES. 

THE  close  of  the  year  1795  saw  France  under  the  government 
of  the  Directory,  with  Carnot  in  the  cabinet,  and  Pichegru,  Jour- 
dain,  Moreau,  Iloche,  and  Buonaparte  at  the  head  of  its  armies. 
This  government,  with  some  change  of  persons,  lasted  from  Octo- 
ber 1795  to  November  '99,  when  it  was  supplanted  by  the  con- 
sular revolution.  Within  the  compass  of  those  four  years  lie  the 
negotiations  which  were  carried  on  and  the  three  great  expeditions 
which  were  fitted  out  by  France  and  Holland,  at  the  instance  of 
the  United  Irishmen. 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1796,  Tone,  who  had  sailed  from  Bel- 
last  the  previous  June,  arrived  at  Havre  from  New  York,  pos- 
sessed of  a  hundred  guineas  and  some  useful  letters  of  introduc- 
tion. One  of  these  letters,  written  in  cipher,  waa  from  the 
French  Minister  at  Philadelphia  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  Charles  Lacroix;  another  wa&  to  the  American  Minister 
in  France,  Mr.  Monroe,  afterwards  President  of  the  United  States, 
by  whom  he  was  most  kindly  received,  and  wisely  advised,  on 
reaching  Paris.  Lacroix  received  him  courteously  and  referred 
him  to  a  subordinate  called  Madgett,  but  after  nearly  three 
months  wasted  in  interviews  and  explanations,  Tone,  by  the  ad- 
vice of  Monroe,  presented  himself  at  the  Luxembourg  palace, 
and  demanded  audience  of  the  "  Organizer  of  Victory."  Carnot 
also  listened  to  him  attentively,  asked  and  obtained  his  true  name. 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRKLAND.  691 

and  gave  him  another  rendezvous.  He  was  next  introduced  to 
Clarke  (afterwards  Due  de  Feltre),  Secretary  at  "War,  the  son  of 
an  Irishman,  whom  he  found  wholly  ignorant  of  Ireland ;  and 
finally,  on  the  12th  of  July,  General  Hoche,  in  the  most  frank 
and  winning  manner,  introduced  himself.  At  first  the  Directory 
proposed  sending  to  Ireland  no  more  than  5,000  men,  while  Tone 
pleaded  for  20,000 ;  but  when  Hoch6  accepted  tlte  command,  he 
assured  Tone  he  would  go  "  in  sufficient  force."  The  "  pacificator 
of  La  Vendee,"  as  the  young  general  was  called — he  was  only 
thirty-two, — won  at  once  the  heart  of  the  enthusiastic  founder  of 
the  United  Irishmen,  and  the  latter  seems  to  have  made  an  equally 
favorable  impression.  He  was  at  once  presented  with  the  com- 
mission of  a  chef  de  brigade  of  infantry — a  rank  answering  to 
that  of  colonel  with  us — and  was  placed  as  adjutant  on  the  gen- 
eral's  staff.  Hoch6  w.is  all  ardor  and  anxiety ;  Carnot  cheered 
him  on  by  expressing  his  belief  that  it  would  be  "  a  most  brilliant 
operation ;"  and  certainly  Tone  was  not  the  man  to  damp  such 
expectations,  or  allow  them  to  evaporate  in  mere  complimentary 
assurances. 

During  the  autumn  months  the  expedition  was  busily  being 
fitted  out  at  Brest,  and  the  general  headquarters  were  at  Rennes. 
The  Directory,  to  satisfy  themselves  that  all  was  as  represented 
by  Tone,  had  sent  an  agent  of  their  own  to  Ireland,  by  whom  a 
meeting  was  arranged  on  the  Swiss  frontier  between  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  Arthur  O'Connor,  Dr.  MacXevin,  and  Hoche\  From 
this  meeting — the  secret  of  which  he  kept  to  himself — the  young 
general  returned  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  was  kinder  than  ever 
to  his  adjutant.  At  length,  early  in  December,  all  was  ready, 
and  on  the  16th  the  Brest  fleet  stood  out  to  sea:  17  sail  of  the 
line,  13  frigates,  and  13  smaller  ships,  carrying  15,000  picked 
troops,  the  elite  of  "  the  Army  of  the  Ocean,"  and  abundance  of 
artillery  and  munitions  of  war.  Tone  was  in  the  Indomptable,  80 
guns,  commanded  by  a  Canadian  named  Bedout ;  HochS  and  the 
Admiral  in  the  frigate  Fraternite  ;  Grouchy,  so  memorable  for 
the  part  he  played  then  and  afterwards,  was  second  in  command. 
On  the  third  morning,  after  groping  about  and  losing  each  other 
In  Atlantic  fog,  one-half  the  fleet  (with  the  fatal  exception  of  th« 
Fraternite]  found  themselves  close  in  with  the  coast  of  Kerry 


692  FOPULAft    HIST  CRT    OF    IRELAND. 

They  entered  Bantry  Bay,  and  came  to  anchor,  ten  ships  of  w»r, 
and  "  a  long  line  of  dark  hulls  resting  on  the  green  water."  Three 
or  four  days  they  lay  dormant  and  idle,  waiting  for  che  General 
and  Admiral;  Bouvet,  the  Vice-Admiral,  was  opposed  to  moving 
in  the  absence  of  his  chief;  Grouchy  was  irresolute  and  nervous; 
but  at  lengt'h,  on  Christmas  day,  the  council  of  war  decided  in 
favor  of  debarkation.  The  landing  was  to  take  place  next  morn- 
ing ;  6,50i>  veterans  were  prepared  to  step  ashore  at  daylight,  but 
without  their  artillery,  their  military  chest,  and  their  general 
Two  hours  beyond  midnight  Tone  was  roused  from  sleep  by  the 
wind,  which  he  found  blowing  half  a  gale.  Pacing  the  gallery 
of  the  Indomptable  till  day  dawned,  he  felt  it  rising  louder  and 
angrier,  every  hour.  The  next  day  it  was  almost  a  hurricane, 
and  the  Vice- Admiral's  frigate,  running  under  the  quarter  of  the 
great  80  gun  ship,  ordered  them  to  slip  anchor  and  stand  out  tc 
sea.  Tlie  whole  fleet  was  soon  driven  off  the  Irish  coast;  that 
part  of  it,  in  which  Grouchy  and  Tone  were  embarked,  made  its 
entrance  into  Brest  on  New  Year's  day;  the  ship  which  carried 
Hoch6  and  the  Admiral,  only  arrived  at  La  Rochelle  on  the  16th. 
The  Directory  and  the  General,  so  far  from  being  discouraged  by 
this  failure,  consoled  themselves  by  the  demonstration  they  had 
inudc,  of  the  possibility  of  a  great  fleet  passing  to  and  fro,  in 
British  waters,  for  nearly  a  month,  without  encountering  a  single 
British  vessel  of  war.  Not  so  the  Irish  negotiator ;  on  him,  light- 
hearted  and  daring  as  he  was,  the  disappointment  fell  with  crush- 
ing weight ;  but  he  magnanimously  carried  GrouchVs  report  to 
1'aris,  and  did  his  utmost  to  defend  the  unlucky  general  from  a 
cabal  which  had  been  formed  against  him. 

While  Tone  was  reluctantly  following  his  new  chief  to  the  Meuse 
and  the  Rhine — with  a  promise  that  the  Irish  expedition  was  delay- 
ed, not  abandoned — another,  and  no  less  fortunate  negotiator,  was 
raising  up  a  new  ally  for  the  same  cause,  in  an  unexpected  quar- 
tor.  The  Batavian  republic,  which  had  risen  in  the  steps  of 
J'icliegra's  victorious  army,  In  1794,  waa  now  eager  to  imitate  the 
example  of  France.  With  a  powerful  fleet,  and  an  unemployed 
army,  its  chiefs  were  quite  ready  to  listen  to  any  proposal  which 
would  rontore  the  maritime  ascendancy  of  Holland,  and  bring 
back  to  the  recollection  of  Europe  the  memory  of  the  puissant 


POPULAR   BISTORT    Of   IRELAND.  693 

Dutch  republic.  In  this  state  of  affairs,  the  new  agent  of  the 
Irish  Directory,  Edward  John  Lewines,  a  Dublin  attorney,  a  man 
of  great  ability  and  energy,  addressed  himself  to  the  Batavian 
government.  He  had  been  sent  abroad  with  very  general  pow- 
ers, to  treat  with  Holland,  Spain,  France,  or  any  other  govern- 
ment at  war  with  England,  for  a  loan  of  half  a  million  sterling, 
and  a  sufficient  auxiliary  force  to  aid  the  insurrection.  During  two 
mouths'  stay  at  Hamburg,  the  habitual  route  in  those  days  from 
the  British  ports  to  tie  continent,  he  had  placed  himself  in  com- 
munication with  the  Spanish  agent  there,  and  had,  in  forty  days, 
received  an  encouraging  answer  from  Madrid.  On  his  way,  pro- 
bably to  Spain,  to  follow  up  that  fair  prospect,  he  reached  the 
Netherlands,  and  rapidly  discovering  the  state  of  feeling  in  the 
Dutch,  or  as  it  was  then  called  the  Balavian  republic,  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  Directors,  who  consulted  Hoche,  by  whom  iu  turn 
Tone  was  consulted.  Tone  had  a  high  opinion  of  Lewines,  and 
at  once  proceeded  with  him  to  the  Hague,  where  they  were  joined, 
according  to  agreement,  by  Hoche.  The  Dutch  Committee  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  the  Commander-in-chief,  General  Dandaels,  and 
the  Admiral,  De  Winter,  entered  heartily  into  the  project.  There 
•were  in  the  Texel  16  ships  of  the  line  and  10  frigates,  victualled 
for  three  months,  with  lo,000  men  and  80  field  guns  on  board. 
The  only  serious  difficulty  in  the  way  was  removed  by  the  dis- 
interestedness of  Hoche;  the  French  Foreign  Minister  having 
demanded  that  6,000  French  troops  should  be  of  the  expedition, 
and  that  Hoche  should  command  in  chief;  the  latter,  to  conciliate 
Dandaels  and  the  Dutch,  undertook  to  withdraw  the  proposal, 
aud  gracefully  yielded  his  own  pretensions.  All  then  was  set- 
tled: Tone  was  to  accompany  Dandaels  with  the  same  rank  he 
had  in  the  Brest  expedition,  and  Lewines  to  return,  and  remain, 
as  "  Minister-resident "  at  Paris.  On  the  8th  of  July,  Tone  was 
on  board  the  flag-ship,  the  Vryheid,  74  guns,  in  the  Texel,  and 
"  only  waiting  for  a  wind,"  to  lead  another  navy  to  the  aid  of  hia 
compatriots. 

But  the  winds,  "  the  only  unsubsidized  allies  of  England,"  were 
strangely  adverse.  A  week,  two,  three,  four,  five,  passed  heavily 
awav,  without  affording  a  sintrle-dav  in  which  that  mighty  fleet 

»•   '  O  J  >        - 

could  make  an  offing.    Sometimes  for  an  hour  or  two  it  shifted  to 


694  POPULAR    HIBTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

the  desired  point,  the  sails  were  unclewed  and  the  anchors  short 
entd,  but  then,  as  if  to  torture  the  impatient  exiles  on  board,  it 
veered  back  again  and  settled  steadily  in  the  fatal  south-west.  At 
length,  at  the  end  of  August,  the  provisions  being  nearly  con- 
sumed, and  the  weather  still  unfavorable,  the  Dutch  Directory 
resolved  to  land  the  troops  and  postpone  the  expedition.  Do 
Winter,  as  is  known,  subsequently  found  an  opportunity  to  work 
out,  and  attack  Lord  Duncan,  by  whom  he  was  badly  beaten. 
Thus  ended  Irish  hopes  of  aid  from  Holland.  The  indomitable 
Tone  rejoined  his  chief  on  the  Rhine,  where,  to  his  infinite  re- 
gret, Iloclto  died  the  following  month — September  18th,  1797 — 
of  a  rapid  consumption,  accelerated  by  cold  and  carelessness. 
"  Heche","  said  Napoleon  to  Barry  O'Meara  at  Saint  Helena,  "  was 
one  of  the  first  generals  France  ever  produced.  He  was  brave, 
intelligent,  abounding  in  talent,  decisive  and  penetrating.  Had 
he  landed  in  Ireland,  he  would  have  succeeded.  He  was  accus- 
tomed to  civil  war,  had  pacified  La  Vend6e,  and  was  well  adapted 
for  Ireland.  He  had  a  fine,  handsome  figure,  a  good  address,  was 
prepossessing  and  intriguing."  The  loss  of  such  a  patron,  who 
felt  himself,  according  to  Tone's  account,  especially  bound  to  fol- 
low up  tlie  object  of  separating  Ireland  from  England,  was  a 
calamity  greater  and  more  irreparable  than  the  detention  of  one 
fleet  or  the  dispersion  of  the  other. 

The  third  expedition,  in  promoting  which  Tone  and  Lewines 
bore  the  principal  part,  was  decided  upon  by  the  French  Direc- 
tory, immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Austria,  in 
October,  1797.  The  decree  for  the  formation  of  "the  Army  of 
England,"  named  Buonaparte  Commander-in-Chief,  with  Desair 
as  his  second.  Buonaparte  consulted  Clarke  as  to  who  he  most 
confided  in  among  the  numerous  Irish  refugees  then  in  Paris— 
there  were  some  twenty  or  thirty,  all  more  or  less  known,  and 
more  or  less  in  communication  with  the  Directory — and  Clarke 
answered  at  once,  "  Tone,  of  course."  Tone,  with  Lewines,  the 
one  in  a  military,  the  other  in  an  ambassadorial  capacity,  had 
frequent  interviews  with  the  young  conqueror  of  Italy,  whom 
they  usually  found  silent  and  absorbed,  always  attentive,  some- 
times asking  sudden  questions  betraying  great  want  of  knowledge 
of  the  British  Islands,  and  occasionally,  though  rarely  breaking 


POPULAB    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  695 


out  into  irresistible  invectives  against  Jacobinism  and  the  Eng- 
lish system,  both  of  which  he  so  cordially  detested.  Every 
assurance  was  given  by  the  General,  by  the  Directors,  by  Merlin 
du  Douai,  Barras,  and  Talleyrand  especially,  that  the  expedition 
against  England  would  never  be  abandoned.  Tone,  in  high  spirits 
as  usual,  joined  the  division  under  the  command  of  his  country- 
nan,  General  Kilmaine,  and  took  up  his  quarters  at  Havre,  where 
ho  had  landed  without  knowing  a  soul  in  France  two  years  before. 

The  winter  wore  away  in  busy  preparations  at  Havre,  at 
Brest,  and  at  La  Rochelle,--and,  which  seemed  mysterious  to  the 
Irish  exiles — at  Toulon.  All  the  resources  of  France,  now  without 
an  enemy  on  the  continent,  were  put  forth  in  these  preparations, 
But  it  soon  appeared  they  were  not  put  forth  for  Ireland.  On 
the  20th  of  May,  1798 — within  three  days  of  the  outbreak  in 
Dublin,  W oxford,  and  Kildare — Buonaparte  sailed  with  the  elite 
of  all  that  expedition  for  Alexandria,  and  "  the  Army  of  Eng- 
land "  became,  in  reality,  "  the  Army  of  Egypt." 

The  bitterness,  the  despondency,  and  desperation  which  seized 
on  the  Irish  leaders  in  France,  and  on  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
United  Irishmen  at  home,  on  receiving  this  intelligence,  are  suf- 
ficiently illustrated  in  the  subsequent  attempts  under  Humbert 
and  Bompart,  and  the  partial,  ineffectual  risings  in  Leinster, 
Ulster,  and  Connaught,  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1798. 
After  all  their  high  hopes  from  France  and  her  allies,  this  was 
what  it  had  come  to  at  last  I  A  few  frigates,  with  three  or  four 
thousand  men,  were  all  that  could  be  spared  for  the  succor  of  a 
kingdom  more  populous  than  Egypt  and  Syria  combined ;  the 
granary  of  England,  and  the  key  of  her  Atlantic  position.  It 
might  have  been  some  comfort  to  the  family  of  Tone  to  havs 
read,  thirty  years  afterwards,  in  their  American  asylum,  or  foT 
the  aged  Lewines  to  have  read  in  the  Parisian  retreat  in  which 
he  died,  the  memorable  confession  of  Napoleon  at  Saint  Helena. 
"  If  instead  of  the  expedition  to  Egypt,  I  had  undertaken  that  to 
Ireland,  what,"  he  asked,  "  could  England  do  now  1  On  such 
chances,"  he  mournfully  added,  "depend  the  deetiniee  of  en* 


696  POPULA&   HISTOBT    OF 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   INSURRECTION   OP 

IT  is  nc  longer  matter  of  assertion  merely,  but  simple  matter 
of  fact,  thf.t  the  English  and  Irish  ministers  of  George  III.,  re- 
garded the  insurrectionary  movement  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
as  at  once  a  pretext  and  a  means,  for  effecting  a  legislative  union 
between  the  two  countries.  Lord  Camdcn,  the  viceroy  who  suc- 
ceeded Lord  Fitzwilliam  in  March  '95 — with  Mr.  Pelham  as  his 
chief  secretary,  in  a  letter  to  his  relative,  the  Hon.  Robert  Stewart, 
afterwards  Lord  Castlereagh,  announced  this  policy,  in  unmistake- 
able  terms,  so  early  as  1793  ;  and  all  the  official  correspondence 
published  of  late  years,  concerning  that  period  of  British  and 
Irish  history,  establishes  the  fact  beyond  the  possibility  of 
denial. 

Such  being  the  design,  it  was  neither  the  wish  nor  the  interest 
of  the  government,  that  the  insurrection  should  be  suppressed, 
unless  the  Irish  constitution  could  be  extinguished  with  it.  To 
that  end  they  proceeded  in  the  coercive  legislation  described  in  a 
previous  chapter ;  to  that  end  they  armed  with  irresponsible 
power  the  military  officers  and  the  oligarchical  magistracy ;  with 
that  view  they  quartered  those  yeomanry  regiments  which  were 
known  to  be  composed  of  Orangemen,  on  the  wretched  peasantry 
of  the  most  Catholic  counties,  while  the  corps  in  which  Catholic* 
or  United  Irishmen  were  most  numerous,  were  sent  over  to  Eng- 
land, in  exchange  for  Scotch  fencibles  and  Welsh  cavalry.  The 
outrages  committed  by  all  these  volunteer  troops,  but  above  all 
by  the  Orange  yeomanry  of  the  country,  were  so  monstrous  that 
the  gallant  and  humane  Sir  John  Moore  exclaimed,  "  if  I  were  an 
Irishman,  1  would  be  a  rebel  F 

It  was,  indeed,  impossible  for  any  man  however  obscure,  *r 
however  eminent,  to  live  longer  in  the  country,  without  taking 
•ides.  Yet  the  choice  was  at  best  a  hard  and  unhappy  one.  On 
the  one  side  was  the  Castle,  hardly  concealing  its  intention  of 
gotdiug  on  the  people,  in  order  to  rob  them  of  their  Parliament ; 


POPULAR   HISTORY    Of   IRELAND.  69) 

on  the  othar  was  the  injured  multitude,  bound  together  by  a  secret 
system  which  proved  in  reality  no  safeguard  against  traitors  in 
their  own  ranks,  and  which  had  been  placed  by  its  Protestant 
chiefs  under  the  auspices  of  an  infidel  republic.  Between  th» 
two  courses  men  made  election  according  to  their  bias  or  their 
necessities,  or  as  they  took  local  or  general,  political  or  theologi- 
cal views  of  the  situation.  Both  houses  of  the  legislature  unani- 
mously sustained  the  government  against  the  insurrection ;  aa 
did  the  judges,  the  bar,  and  the  Anglican  clergy  and  bishops. 
The  Presbyterian  body  were  in  the  beginning  all  but  unanimous 
for  a  republican  revolution  and  the  French  alliance ;  the  great 
majority  of  the  Catholic  peasantry  were,  as  the  crisis  increased, 
driven  into  the  same  position,  while  all  their  bishops  and  a  major- 
ity of  the  Catholic  aristocracy,  adhered  to  that  which  they,  with 
the  natural  tendency  of  their  respective  orders,  considered  the 
side  of  religion  and  authority.  Thus  was  the  nation  sub- divided 
within  itself;  Protestant  civilian  from  Protestant  ecclesiastic, 
Catholic  layman  from  Catholic  priest,  tenant  from  lord,  neighbor 
from  neighbor,  father  from  son,  and  friend  from  friend. 

During  the  whole  of  '97,  the  opposing  parties  were  iu  a  ferment 
of  movement  and  apprehension.  As  the  year  wore  on,  the  admin- 
istration, both  English  and  Irish,  began  to  feel  that  the  danger 
was  more  formidable  than  they  had  foreseen.  The  timely  storm 
which  had  blown  Grouchy  out  of  Bantry  Bay,  the  previous  Christ- 
ma.1?,  could  hardly  be  reckoned  on  again,  though  the  settled  hos- 
tility of  the  French  government  knew  no  change.  Thoroughly 
well  informed  by  their  legion  of  spies  both  on  the  Continent  and 
in  Ireland,  every  possible  military  precaution  was  taken.  Tho 
Lord  Lieutenant's  proclamation  for  disarming  the  people  issued 
iu  May,  was  rigorously  enforced  by  General  Johnstone  in  the 
South,  General  Ilutchinson  in  the  West,  and  Lord  Lake  in  the 
North.  Two  hundred  thousand  pikes  and  pike  heads  were  said 
to  have  been  discovered  or  surrendered,  during  the  year,  and 
several  thousand  firelocks.  The  yeomanry,  and  English  and 
Scotch  corps  amounted  to  35,000  men,  while  the  regular  troops 
wjre  increased  to  50,000  and  subsequently  to  80,000,  including 
three  regiments  of  the  Guards.  The  defensive  works  at  Cork, 
and  ether  vulnerable  points  were  strengthened  at  an  immense  cost; 
59 


698  POPULAR    HISTORY    Or   IRELAND. 

the  "  Pigeon  House  "  fort,  near  Dublin,  waa  enlarged,  for  tke  city 
Itself  waa  pronounced  by  General  Vallancey,  Colonel  Packenham, 
and  other  engineer  authorities  dangerously  weak,  if  not  wholly 
untenable.  A  system  of  telegraphic  signals  was  established  from 
all  points  of  the  coast  with  the  Capital,  and  every  precaution 
taken  against  the  surprise  of  another  French  invasion. 

During  the  summer  assize,  almost  every  considerable  town  and 
circuit  had  its  state  trial  The  sheriffs  had  been  carefully  selected 
beforehand  by  the  Castle,  and  the  juries  were  certain  to  be  of 
"  the  right  sort,"  under  the  auspices  of  such  sheriffs.  Immense 
sums  in  the  aggregate  were  contributed  by  the  United  Irish  for 
ttie  defence  of  their  associates ;  at  the  Down  assizes  alone,  not 
less  than  seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred  guineas  were*  spent  in 
fees  and  retainers ;  but  at  the  close  of  the  term,  Mr.  Beresford 
was  able  to  boast  to  his  friend  Lord  Auckland,  that  but  one  of  all 
the  accused  had  escaped  the  penalty  of  death  or  banishment ! 
The  military  tribunals,  however,  did  not  wait  for  the  idle  formal- 
ities of  the  civil  courts.  Soldiers  and  civilians,  yeomen  and  towns- 
men, against  whom  the  informer  pointed  his  finger,  were  taken 
out,  and  summarily  executed.  Ghastly  forms  hung  upon  the 
thick-set  gibbets,  not  only  in  the  market  places  of  country  towns, 
and  before  the  public  prisons,  but  on  all  the  bridges  of  the  metro- 
polis. Many  of  the  soldiers,  in  every  military  district  were  shot 
weekly  and  almost  daily  for  real  or  alleged  complicity  with  the 
rebels.  The  horrid  torture  of  picketing,  and  the  blood-stained 
Utah,  were  constantly  resorted  to,  to  extort  accusations  or  con- 
fessions. Over  all  these  atrocities  the  furious  and  implacable 
spirit  of  Lord  Clare  presided  in  Council,  and  the  equally  furious 
and  implacable  Luttrel,  Lord  Carhampton,  as  commander-in-chief. 
All  moderate  councils  were  denounced  as  nothing  short  of  trea- 
son, and  even  the  elder  Beresford,  the  Privy  Councillor,  waa  corn- 
pi  Hod  to  complain  of  the  violence  of  his  noble  associates,  and  hi* 
Inability  to  restrain  the  ferocity  of  hi*  own  nearest  relatives — 
meaning  probably  his  son  John  Claudius,  and  his  son  in  law,  Sir 
George  llill. 

It  was  while  this  spirit  was  abroad,  a  spirit  as  destructive  M 
•ver  animated  the  councils  of  Sylla  or  Marius  in  old  Rome,  or 
prompted  the  decrees  of  Robesp.erro  or  Marat  in  France,  that  the 


POtWLAft  Histomr  o*  IRELAND.  690 

genius  and  courage  of  one  man,  redeemed  the  tost  reputation  of 
the  law,  and  upheld  against  all  odds  the  sacred  claims  of  per- 
sonal  liberty.  This  man  was  John  Philpot  Curran,  the  most 
dauntless  of  advocates,  one  of  the  truest  and  bravest  of  his  race. 
Although  a  politician  of  the  school  of  Grattan,  and  wholly  un- 
tainted with  French  principles,  he  identified  himself  absolutely 
with  his  unhappy  clients,  "  predoomed  to  death."  The  genius  of 
patriotic  resistance  which  seemed  to  have  withdrawn  from  the 
Island  with  Grattan's  secession  from  Parliament,  now  reappeared 
in  the  last  place  where  it  might  have  been  expected — in  those 
courts  of  death,  rather  t'han  of  justice — before  those  predeter- 
mined juries,  beside  the  hopeless  inmates  of  the  crowded  dock, 
personified  in  the  person  of  Curran.  Often  at  midnight,  amid 
the  dash  of  arms,  his  wonderful  pleadings  were  delivered ;  some- 
times, as  in  Dublin,  where  the  court  rooms  adjoined  the  prisons, 
the  condemned,  or  the  confined,  could  hear,  in  their  cells,  his  pierc- 
ing accents  breaking  the  stillness  of  the  early  morning,  pleading 
for  justice  and  mercy — pleading  always  with  superhuman  per 
severance,  but  almost  always  in  vain.  Neither  menaces  of  arrest, 
nor  threats  of  assassination,  had  power  to  intimidate  that  all- 
daring  spirit ;  nor,  it  may  be  safely  said,  can  the  whole  library 
of  human  history  present  us  a  form  of  heroism  superior  in  kind 
or  degree  to  that  which  this  illustrious  advocate  exhibited  during 
nearly  two  years,  when  he  went  forth  daily,  with  his  life  in  his 
hand,  in  the  holy  hope  to  snatch  some  human  victim  from  the 
clutch  of  the  destroyer  thirsting  for  his  blood. 

In  November,  '97,  some  said  from  fear  of  personal  consequen- 
ces, some  from  official  pressure  in  a  high  quarter,  Lord  Carhamp- 
ton  resigned  the  command  of  the  forces,  and  Sir  Ralph  Aber- 
croinby  was  appointed  in  his  stead.  There  could  not  be  a  more 
striking  illustration  of  the  system  of  terror  patronized  by  goT- 
ernment  than  was  furnished  in  the  case  of  Sir  Ralph  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief.  That  distinguished  soldier,  with  his  half 
century  of  services  at  his  back,  had  not  been  a  week  in  Dublin 
before  he  discovered  the  weakness  of  the  viceroy,  and  the  violence 
of  his  principal  advisers,  the  chancellor,  t»ie  speaker,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  and  the  Bereaforda.  Writing  in  confidence  to  his  son,  he 
•ays.  "  The  abuses  of  all  kinds  T  found  here  can  scarcely  be  be- 


YOU  I  JPULAK   BISTORT    OJ    IBELAM). 

lieved  or  enumerated."  The  instances  he  cites  of  such  abuse* 
are  sufficiently  horrible  to  justify  the  strong  language  wliich 
brought  d»\vn  on  hia  head  so  much  hostility,  when  he  declared  in 
his  proclamation  of  February,  '98,  that  the  Irish  army  wa« 
"  formidable  to  every  one  but  the  enemy."  These  well-known 
opinions  were  so  repugnant  to  the  Castle  policy  that  that  party 
held  a  caucus  in  the  speaker's  chambers,  at  which  it  was  proposed 
to  pass  a  rote  of  censure  in  Parliament  on  the  General,  whom 
they  denounced  as  '•  a  sulky  mule,"  "  a  Scotch  beast,"  and  by 
other  similar  names.  Though  the  Parliamentary  censure  dropped' 
they  actually  compelled  Lord  Camden  to  call  on  him  to  retract 
his  magnanimous  order.  To  this  humiliation  the  veteran 
etooped  "for  the  sake  of  the  king's  service,"  but  at  the  same  time 
he  proffered  his  resignation.  After  two  months'  correspondence, 
it  was  finally  accepted,  and  the  soldier  who  was  found  too  jealous 
of  the  rights  of  the  people  to  be  a  fit  instrument  of  their  des- 
truction, escaped  from  his  high  position,  not  without  a  profound 
sentiment  of  relief.  His  verdict  upon  the  barbarous  policy  pur- 
sued in  his  time  was  always  expressed,  frankly  and  decisively. 
His  entire  correspondeifcce,  private  and  public,  bears  one  and  the 
wune  burthen — the  violence,  cruelty,  and  tyranny  of  Lord  Cam- 
den  a  chief  advisers,  and  the  pitiful  weakness  of  the  viceroy  him- 
self Against  the  infamous  plan  of  letting  loose  a  lustful  and 
bnit:il  soldiery  to  live  at  "  free  quarters "  on  a  defenceless  and 
disarmed  people  —  an  outrage  against  which  Englishmen  had 
taken  perpetual  security  at  their  revolution,  as  may  be  see?)  iu 
"  the  Bill  of  Rights,"  he  struggled  during  hia  six  months'  com- 
mand, but  with  no  great  success.  The  plan,  with  all  its  horrors, 
was  upheld  by  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  and  more  than  any  other 
cause,  precipitated  the  rebellion  which  exploded  at  last,  just  as 
Sir  Ralph  was  allowed  to  retire  from  the  country.  His  tempo, 
rary  successor,  Lord  Lake,  was  troubled  with  no  such  scruples 
as  the  gallant  old  Scotsman. 

K vents  followed  each  other  in  the  first  months  of  1798,  fast 
and  furiously.  Towards  the  tnd  of  February,  Arthur  O'Con  lor. 
Father  James  Quigley,  the  brothers  John  and  Benjamin  iiinna, 
were  arrested  at  Margate  on  their  wny  to  France;  on  the  Gth  of 
March,  the  Proa  newspaper^  the  Dublin  organ  of  the  party,  afl 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  701 

the  Star  had  been  the  ti  later  organ,  was  seized  by  government 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  and  William  Sampson  being  at  the  time 
in  the  office.  On  the  12th  of  March,  on  the  information  of  the 
traitor,  Thomas  Reynolds,  the  Leinster  delegates  were  seized  in 
conclave,  with  all  their  papers,  at  the  house  of  Oliver  Bond,  in 
Bridge  street,  Dublin.  On  the  same  information,  Addis  Emmett 
and  Dr.  MacNevin  were  taken  in  their  own  houses,  and  Sampson 
in  the  north  of  England :  of  all  the  executive,  Lord  Edward  alone 
escaping  those  sent  in  search  of  him.  This  was,  as  Tone  notes 
in  his  journal,  on  the  ill  news  reaching  France,  "a  terrible  blow." 
O'Connor's  arrest  in  Kent,  Sampson's  in  Carlisle,  and  the  other 
arrests  in  Bedfast  and  Dublin,  proved  too  truly  that  treason  waa 
at  work,  and  that  the  much  prized  oath  of  secresy  was  no  pro- 
tection whatever  against  the  devices  of  the  Castle  and  the  de- 
pravity of  its  secret  agents.  The  extent  to  which  that  treason 
extended,  the  number  of  their  associates  who  were  in  the  pay  of 
their  deadly  enemies,  was  never  known  to  the  United  Irish  lead- 
ers ;  time  has,  however,  long  since  "  revealed  the  secrets  of  the 
priaon-house,"  and  we  know  now,  that  men  they  trusted  with  all 
their  plans  and  hopes,  such  as  McNally  and  McGucken,  were 
quite  as  deep  in  the  conspiracy  to  destroy  them  as  Mr.  Reynolds 
and  Captain  Armstrong. 

The  most  influential  members  of  the  Dublin  Society  remain- 
ing at  large  contrived  to  correspond  with  each  other,  or  to  meet 
by  stealth  after  the  arrest  at  Bond's.  The  vacancies  in  the 
Executive  were  filled  up  by  the  brothers  John  and  Henry  Sheares, 
both  barristers,  sons  of  a  wealthy  Cork  banker,  and  former  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  and  by  Mr.  Lawless,  a  surgeon.  For  two 
months  longer  these  gentlemen  continued  to  act  in  concert  with 
Lord  Edward,  who  remained  undetected  notwithstanding  all  the 
efforts  of  government,  from  the  12th  of  March  till  the  19th  of 
May  following.  During  those  two  months  the  new  Directors 
devoted  themselves  with  the  utmost  energy  to  hurrying  on  the 
armament  of  the  people,  and  especially  to  making  proselytes 
among  the  militia,  where  the  gain  of  one  man  armed  and  di»- 
ciplined  was  justly  accounted  equal  to  the  enlistment  of  three  or 
four  ordinary  adherents.  This  part  of  their  plan  brought  tltt 
brothers  Sheares  into  contac1,,  among  others,  with  Captain  John 
69* 


702  POPULAR  HISTORY  or  IRKLAKD. 

'Warnefo'.-d  ArmBtrong,  of  the  Queen's  County  Yeomanry,  vhom 
they  supposed  they  had  won  over,  but  who  was,  in  reality,  a 
better-class  spy,  acting  under  Lord  Castlereagh's  instructions. 
Armstrong  cultivated  them  sedulously,  dined  at  their  table, 
echoed  their  opinions,  and  led  the  credulous  brothers  on  to  their  des- 
truction. All  al  last  was  determined  on ;  the  day  of  the  rising  waa 
fixed — the  23d  day  of  May — and  the  signal  was  to  be  the  simul- 
taneous stoppage  of  the  mail  coaches,  which  started  nightly  from 
the  Dublin  post  office,  to  every  quarter  of  the  kingdom.  But  the 
counter-plot  anticipated  the  plot  Lord  Edward,  betrayed  by  a 
person  called  Higgins,  proprietor  of  the  Freeman's  Journal,  was 
taken  on  the  19th  of  May,  after  a  desperate  struggle  with  Majors 
Swan  and  Sirr,  and  Captain  Ryan,  in  his  hiding  place  in  Thomas 
street ;  the  brothers  Sheares  were  arrested  in  their  own  house  on 
the  morning  of  the  21st,  while  Surgeon  Lawless,  escaped  from 
the  city,  and  finally,  from  the  country,  to  France.  Thus  for  the 
second  time  was  the  insurrection  left  without  a  head ;  but  the 
organization  had  proceeded  too  far  to  be  any  longer  restrained, 
and  the  Castle,  moreover,  to  use  the  expression  of  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  "  took  means  to  make  it  explode." 

The  first  intelligence  of  the  rebellion  was  received  in  Dublin  on 
the  morning  of  the  24th  of  May.  At  Rathfarnham,  within  three 
miles  of  the  city,  600  insurgents  attacked  Lord  Ely's  yeomanry 
corps  with  some  success,  till  Lord  Roden's  dragoons,  hastily  des- 
patched fiom  the  city,  compelled  them  to  retreat,  with  the  loss 
of  some  prisoners  and  two  men  killed,  whom  Mr.  Beresford  saw 
the  next  day,  literally  "  ait  to  piece* — a  horrid  sight"  At  Dun- 
boyne  the  insurgents  piked  an  escort  of  the  Reay  Fcnciblea 
(Scotch)  passing  through  their  village,  and  carried  off  their  bag- 
gage. At  Niias,  a  large  popular  force  attacked  the  garrison, .  n- 
eislin£  of  regulars,  Ancient  Britons  (Welsh),  part  of  a  regiment 
of  dragoons,  and  the  Armagh  militia;  the  attack  waa  renewed 
three  times  with  great  braTery,  but  fioclly,  discipline,  as  it  always 
A  ill.  prevailed  over  mere  numbers,  and  the  assailants  were  re- 
pulsed with  the  loss  of  140  of  their  comrades.  At  Prosperous, 
where  they  cut  off  to  a  man  a  strong  garrison  composed  of  north 
Cork  militia,  under  Captain  Swayne,  the  rising  was  more  success- 
ful. The  commander  in  this  exploit  was  Dr.  Esmonde,  brother 


POPl LAR    BISTORT    07    IRELAHD.  703 

ol  the  Wexford  baronet,  who,  being  betrayed  by  one  of  his  own 
subalterns,  was  the  next  morning  arrested  at  breakfast  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  suffered  death  at  Dublin  on  the  14th  of  the 
following  month. 

There  could  hardly  be  found  a  more  unfavorable  field  for  a 
peasant  war  than  the  generally  level  and  easily  accessible  county 
of  Kildare,  every  parish  of  which  is  within  a  day's  inarch  of 
Dublin.  From  having  been  the  residence  of  Lord  Edward,  it 
was,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  highly  organized  parts  of  Lein- 
ster,  but  as  it  had  the  misfortune  to  be  represented  by  Thomas 
Reynolds,  as  county  delegate,  it  labored  under  the  disadvantage 
of  having  its  organization  better  known  to  the  government 
than  any  other.  We  need  hardly  be  surprized,  therefore,  to 
find  that  the  military  operations  in  this  county  were  all  over 
in  ten  days  or  a  fortnight ;  when  those  who  had  neither  surren- 
dered nor  fallen,  fell  back  into  Meath  or  Connaught,  or  effected  a 
junction  with  the  Wicklow  .rebels  in  their  mountain  fastnesses. 
Their  struggle,  though  so  brief,  had  been  creditable  for  personal 
bravery.  Attacked  by  a  numerous  cavalry  and  militia  under 
General  "Wilford,  by  2,500  men,  chiefly  regulars,  under  Genera] 
Dundas,  and  by  800  regulars  brought  up  by  forced  marches  from 
Limerick,  under  Sir  James  Duff,  they  showed  qualities,  which  if 
well  directed,  would  have  established  for  their  possessors  a  high 
military  reputation.  At  Monastereven  they  were  repulsed  with 
loss,  the  defeml*-i'a  of  the  town  being  in  part  Catholic  loyalists, 
under  Captain  Cassidy ;  at  Rathangan  they  were  more  success- 
ful, taking  and  holding  the  town  for  several  days ;  at  Clane,  the 
captors  of  Prosperous  were  repulsed;  while  at  Old  Killcullen, 
their  associates  drove  back  General  Dundas'  advance,  with  the 
loaj  of  22  regulars  and  Captain  Erskine  killed.  Sir  James  Duff's 
wanton  cruelty  in  sabring  and  shooting  down  an  unarmed  multi- 
tude on  the  Curragh,  won  him  the  warm  approval  of  the  exter- 
mination party  in  the  capital,  while  Generals  Wilford  and  Dun- 
das narrowly  escaped  being  reprimanded  for  granting  a  truce  to 
the  insurgents  under  Aylmer,  and  accepting  of  the  surrender  of 
that  leader  and  his  companions.  By  the  beginning  of  June  th* 
•be  Kildare  encampments  of  insurgents  were  totally  dispersed, 
and  their  most  active  officers  in  prison  or  fugitives  west  or  south, 


704  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRELAND. 

By  a  preconcerted  arrangement,  the  local  chiefs  of  the  insur- 
rection in  Dublin  and  Meath,  gathered  with  their  men  on  the 
third  day  after  the  outbreak,  at  the  historic  lull  of  Tara.  Hera 
they  expected  to  be  joined  by  the  men  of  Cavan,  Longford,  Louth 
and  Monaghan ;  but  before  the  northerners  reached  the  trysting 
place,  three  companies  of  the  Reay  Fencibles,  under  Captain  Mo> 
Clean,  the  Kells  and  Navan  yeomanry  under  Captain  Preston, 
(afterwards  Lord  Tara,)  and  a  troop  of  cavalry  under  Lord  Fin- 
gal,  surrounded  the  royal  lull.  The  insurgents,  commanded  by  Gil- 
shine  and  other  leaders,  entrenched  themuelves  in  the  graveyard 
which  occupies  the  summit  of  Tara,  and  stoutly  defended  their 
position.  Twenty-six  of  the  Highlanders  and  six  of  the  Yeo- 
inuury  fell  in  the  assault,  but  the  bullet  reached  farther  than  the 
pike,  and  the  defenders  were  driven,  after  a  sharp  action,  over 
the  brow  of  UK-  eminence,  and  many  of  them  shot  or  sabred 
down  as  they  fled. 

Southward  from  the  capital  the  long  pent  up  flame  of  disaf- 
fection broke  out  on  the  same  memorable  day,  May  28d.  At 
Dunlavin.  OH  abortive  attempt  on  the  barrack  revealed  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  yeomanry  were  thoroughly  with  the  insurgents. 
Hardly  had  the  danger  from  without  passed  over,  when  a  mili- 
tary inquiry  was  improvised.  By  this  tribunal,  nineteen  Wex- 
ford,  and  nine  Kildare  yeomanry,  were  ordered  to  be  shot,  and 
the  execution  of  the  sentence  followed  immediately  on  its  finding. 
At  Blessington,  the  town  was  seized,  but  a  nocturnal  attack  on 
Carlow  was  repulsed  with  great  loss.  In  this  last  affair,  the  rebels 
had  rendezvoused  in  the  domain  of  Sir  Edward  Crosbie,  within 
two  miles  of  the  town.  Here  arms  were  distributed  and  orders 
given  by  their  leader,  named  Roche.  Silently  and  quickly 
they  reached  the  town  they  hoped  to  surprise.  But  the  regular 
troops,  of  which  the  garrison  was  chiefly  composed,  were  on  the 
alert  though  their  preparations  were  made  full  as  silently.  When 
the  (.oAHaiitry  emerged  from  Tallow  street,  into  an  exposed  space, 
a  deadly  fire  was  opened  upon  them  from  the  houses  on  all  sides. 
The  regulars,  in  perfect  security  themselves,  and  abundantly  sup* 
plied  with  ammunition,  shot  them  down  with  deadly,  unerring 
aim.  The  pe»plo  soon  found  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  retreat^ 
and  carrying  off  as  best  they  could  their  killed  and  wounded, 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OP   IRELAND.  705 

Wey  retired  sorely  discomfited.  For  alleged  complicity  in  this 
attack,  Sir  Edward  Crosbie  was  shortly  afterward  arrested,  tried 
and  executed.  There  was  not  a  shadow  of  proof  against  him, 
but  he  was  known  to  sympathize  with  the  sufferings  of  his  coun- 
trymen, to  have  condemned  in  strong  language  the  policy  of  pro 
vocation,  and  that  was  sufficient.  He  paid  with  the  penalty  of 
hia  head  for  the  kindness  and  generosity  of  his  heart. 


CHAPTER  XVL 

THK   INSDKRKCTION   OF    1798. THE   W1OCFORD   INSUBREOTIOfr. 

THE'most  formidable  insurrection,  indeed  the  only  really  for- 
midable one,  broke  out  in  the  county  of  Wexford,  a  county  in 
which  it  was  stated  there  were  not  200  sworn  United  Irishmen, 
and  which  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  had  altogether  omitted  from 
his  official  list  of  counties  organized  in  the  month  of  February. 
In  that  brief  interval,  the  government  policy  of  provocation  had 
the  desired  effect,  though  the  explosion  was  of  a  nature  to  startle 
those  who  occasioned  it. 

Wexford,  geographically,  is  a  peculiar  county,  and  its  people 
are  a  peculiar  people.  The  county  fills  up  the  south-eastern 
corner  of  the  island,  with  the  eca  south  cast,  the  river  Barrow  to 
the  west,  and  the  woods  and  mountains  of  Carlow  and  Wicklow 
to  the  north.  It  is  about  forty  miles  long  by  twenty-four  broad ; 
the  surface  undulating  and  rising  into  numerous  groups  of  de- 
tached hills,  two  or  more  of  which  are  generally  visible  from 
each  conspicuous  summit.  Almost  in  the  midst  flows  the  river 
Slaney,  springing  from  a  lofty  Wicklow  peak,  which  sends  <lown 
on  its  northern  slope  the  better  known  river  Lift'ey.  On  th*  estn- 
ary  of  the  Slaney,  some  seventy  miles  south  of  Dublin,  stands 
the  county  town,  the  traveller  journeying  to  which  by  the  usual 
route  then  taken,  passed  in  succession  through  Arklow,  Gorey, 
Ferns,  Enniscorthy,  and  other  places  of  less  consequence,  though 
familiar  enough  in  the  fiery  records  of  17P8.  North-westward, 
the  only  road  in  those  days  from  Carlow  and  Kilkenny,  crossed 


706  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

the  Blackstairs  at  Scollagh-gap,  entering  the  county  at  Newtown- 
barry,  the  ancient  Bunclody ;  westward,  some  twenty  miles,  on 
the  river  Barrow,  stands  New  ROBS,  often  mentioned  in  this  his- 
tory, the  road  from  which  to  the  county  town  passes  through 
Scullabogue  and  Taghmon  (Tetmun),  the  former  at  the  foot  of 
Oarrickbyrne  rock,  the  latter  at  the  base  of  what  is  rather  hyper- 
helically  called  "  the  mountain  of  Forth."  South  and  west  of  th« 
town,  towards  the  estuary  of  "Waterford,  lie  the  taronies  of 
Forth  and  Bargy,  a  great  part  of  the  population  of  which,  even 
within  our  own  time,  spoke  the  language  Chaucer  and  Spenser 
wrote,  and  retained  many  of  the  characteristics  of  their  Saxon, 
Flemish,  and  Cambrian  ancestors.  Through  this  singular  dis- 
trict lay  the  road  towards  Duncannon  fort,  on  Waterford  harbor, 
with  branches  running  off  to  Bannow,  Ballyhack  and  Dunbrody. 
We  shall  therefore  speak  of  all  the  localities  we  may  have  occa- 
sion to  mention  as  on  or  near  one  of  the  four  main  roads  of  the 
county,  the  Dublin,  Carlow,  Ross,  and  Waterford  roads. 

The  population  of  this  territory  was  variously  estimated  in 
1798,  at  150,000,  180,000,  and  200,000.  They  were,  generally 
speaking,  a  comfortable  and  contented  peasantry,  for  the  Wexford 
landlords  were  seldom  absentees,  and  the  farmers  held  under 
them  by  long  leases  and  reasonable  rents.  There  were  in  the 
county  few  great  lords,  but  there  was  little  poverty  and  no  pau- 
perism. In  such  a  soil,  the  secret  societies  were  almost  certain 
to  fail,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  diabolical  experiments  of 
Lord  Kingsborough's  North  Cork  Militia,  it  is  very  probable  that 
that  orderly  and  thrifty  population  would  have  seen  the  eventful 
year  we  are  describing  pass  over  their  homes  without  experienc- 
ing any  of  the  terrible  trials  which  accompanied  it.  But  it  was 
impossible  for  human  nature  to  endure  the  provocations  inflicted 
upon  this  patient  and  prosperous  people.  The  pitch-cap  and  the 
triangle  were  resorted  to  on  the  slightest  and  most  frivolous  pre- 
text*. "A  seigeant  of  the  North  Cork  Militia,"  says  Mr.  Hay, 
the  county  historian,  "nicknamed,  Tom  the  Devil,  was  most 
Ingenious  in  devising  new  modes  of  torture.  Moistened  gun- 
powder was  frequently  rubbed  into  the  hair  cut  close  and  then 
set  on  fire ;  some,  while  shearing  for  this  purpose,  had  the  tips 
of  their  ears  snipt  off;  sometimes  an  entire  ear,  and  often  both 


POPULAR   HISTORY    )F   IRELAND.  Y07 

ears  were  completely  cut  off;  and  many  lost  part  of  their  nosei 
during  the  like  preparation.  But,  strange  to  tell,"  adds  Mr.  Hay, 
''  these  atrocities  were  publicly  practised  without  the  least  reserve 
in  open  day,  and  no  magistrate  or  officer  evei  interfered,  but 
shamefully  connived  at  this  extraordinary  mode  of  quieting  the 
people !  Some  of  the  miserable  sufferers  on  these  shocking  occa- 
sions, or  some  of  their  relations  or  friends,  actuated  by  a  principle  of 
retaliation,  if  not  of  revenge,  cut  short  the  hair  of  several  persona 
whom  they  either  considered  as  enemies  or  inspected  of  having 
pointed  them  out  as  objects  for  such  desperate  treatment.  This 
was  done  with  a  view  that  those  active  citizens  should  fall  in  for 
a  little  experience  of  the  like  discipline,  or  to  make  the  fashion 
of  short  hair  so  general  that  it  might  no  longer  be  a  mark  of 
party  distinction."  This  was  the  origin  of  the  nickname  "  Croppy," 
by  which,  during  the  remainder  of  the  insurrection,  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  designate  all  who  were  suspected  or  proved  to  be 
hostile  to  the  government. 

Among  the  magistracy  of  the  county  were  several  persons  who, 
whatever  might  have  been  their  conduct  in  ordinary  times,  now 
showed  themselves  utterly  unfit  to  be  entrusted  with  those  large 
discretionary  powers,  which  Parliament  had  recently  conferred 
upon  all  justices  of  the  peace.  One  of  these  magistrates,  sur- 
rounded by  his  troops,  perambulated  the  county  with  an  execu- 
tioner, armed  with  all  the  equipments  of  his  office;  another 
carrie  f  away  the  lopped  hands  and  fingers  of  his  victims,  with 
whict  he  stirred  his  punch  in  the  carousals  that  followed  every 
expedition.  At  Carnew,  midway  between  the  Dublin  and  Carlow 
roads,  on  the  second  day  of  the  insurrection,  twenty  eight  prison- 
ers were  brought  out  to  be  shot  at  as  targets  in  the  public  ball 
alley ;  on  the  same  day  Enniscorthy  witnessed  its  first  execution 
for  treason,  and  the  neighborhood  of  Ballaghkeen  was  harried 
by  Mr.  Jacob,  one  of  the  magistrates  whose  method  of  preserving 
the  peace  of  the  county  has  been  just  referred  to.  The  majority 
of  the  bench,  either  weakly  or  willingly,  sanctioned  thsae  atroci- 
ties, but  some  others,  among  them  a  few  of  the  first  men  in  the 
county,  did  not  hesitate  to  resist  and  condemn  them.  Among 
these  were  Mr.  Beauchamp  Bagenal  Harvey,  of  Bargy  Castle, 
Mr.  Fitzgerald,  of  Newpark,  and  Mr.  John  Henry  Colclough,  o/ 


VOd  PurC  LAB   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

Tintern  Abbey ;  but  all  these  gentlemen  were  arrested  on  Satur- 
day, the  20th  of  May — the  same  day,  or  more  strictly  speaking; 
the  eve  of  the  day  on  which  the  Wexford  outbreak  occurred. 

On  the  day  snccoeding  these  arrests,  being  Whitsunday,  Father 
John  Murphy,  parish  priest  of  Kilcormick,  the  son  of  a  small 
farmer  of  the  neighborhood,  educated  in  Spain,  on  coming  to  his 
little  wayside  chapel,  found  it  laid  in  ashes.  To  hfe  flock  as 
they  surrounded  him  in  the  open  nir,  he  boldly  preached  that 
it  would  be  much  better  for  them  to  die  in  a  fair  field  than  to 
await  the  tortures  inflicted  by  such  magistrates  as  Archibald 
Jacob,  Hunter  Gowan,  and  Hawtrey  White.  He  declared  his 
readiness  to  share  their  fate,  whatever  it  might  be,  and  in  re- 
Bponse.about  2,000  of  the  country  people  gathered  in  a  few  hours 
upon  Oulart  Hill,  situated  about  half-way  between  Enniscorthy 
aixl  the  sea,  and  eleven  miles  north  of  Wexford.  Here  they  were 
attacked  on  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  by  the  North  Cork 
militia,  Colon«l  Foote,  the  Shilmalier  Yeoman  cavalry,  Colonel 
Le  Hunte,  and  the  Wexford  cavalry.  The  rebels,  strong  in  their 
position,  and  more  generally  accustomed  to  the  use  of  arms  than 
persons  in  their  condition  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  made  a 
brave  and  successful  stand.  Major  Lambert,  the  Hon.  Captain 
De  Courcey  (brother  of  Lord  Kinsale),  and  some  other  officers, 
fell  before  the  long-shore  guns  of  the  Shilmalier  fowlers ;  of  the 
North  Cork  detachment,  only  the  Colonel,  a  Sergeant,  and  two 
or  three  privates  escaped ;  the  cavalry,  at  the  top  of  their  speed, 
galloped  back  to  the  county  town. 

The  people  were  soon  thoroughly  aroused.  Another  popular 
priest  of  the  diocese,  Michael  Murphy,  on  reaching  Gorey,  find- 
ing his  chapel  also  rifled,  and  the  altar  desecrated,  turned  hie 
horses  head  and  joined  the  insurgents,  who  had  gathered  on  Kil- 
thomas  hill,  near  Carnew.  Signal  fires  burned  that  night  on  all 
th«  eminences  of  the  county,  which  seemed  as  if  they  had  been 
designed  for  so  many  watch-towers ;  horns  resounded ;  horsemen 
galloped  far  and  near ;  on  the  morrow  of  Whitsunday  all  Wex- 
ford arose,  animated  with  the  passions  and  purposes  of  civil 
war. 

On  tho  2Sth,  Ferns,  Cam f din,  *nd  Enriscorthy  were  taken  by 
the  insurgents ;  Utc  latter  after  an  action  of  four  hours,  in  which  • 


POPULAR   HI8TORT   OF   IRELAND.  09 

captain,  two  lieutenants,  and  eighty  of  the  local  yeomanry  fell. 
The  survivors  fled  to  "Wexford,  which  was  as  rapidly  as  possible 
placed  in  a  state  of  defence.  The  eld  walls  and  gates  were  ejill 
in  good  repair,  and  300  North  Cork,  200  Donegal,  and  700  local 
militia  ought  to  have  formed  a  strong  garrison  within  such  ram- 
parts, against  a  mere  tumultuous  peasantry.  The  yeomen,  how- 
ever, thought  otherwise,  and  two  of  the  three  imprisoned  popular 
magistrates  were  sent  to  Enniscorthy  to  exhort  and  endeavor  to 
disperse  the  insurgents.  One  of  them  only  returned,  the  other, 
Mr.  Fitzgerald,  joined  the  rebels ;  who.  continuing  their  march, 
were  allowed  to  take  possession  of  the  county  town  without 
striking  a  blow.  Mr.  Bagenal  Harvey,  the  magistrate  still  in 
prison,  they  insisted  on  making  their  commander-in-chief ;  a  gen- 
tleman of  considerable  property,  by  no  means  destitute  of  cour- 
age, but  in  every  other  respect  quite  unequal  to  the  task  imposed 
upon  him.  After  a  trial  of  his  generalship  at  the  battle  of  Ross, 
he  was  transferred  to  the  more  pacific  office  of  President  of  the 
Council,  which  continued  to  sit  and  direct  operations  from  "Wex- 
ford, with  the  cooperation  of  a  sub-committee  at  Enniscorthy. 
Captain  Matthew  Keogh,  a  retired  officer  of  the  regular  army, 
aged  but  active,  was  made  governor  of  the  town,  in  which  a 
couple  of  hundred  armed  men  were  left  as  his  guards.  An  attempt 
to  relieve  the  place  from  Duncannon  had  utterly  failed.  General 
Fawcett,  commanding  that  important  fortress  set  out  on  his  march 
with  this  object  on  the  80th  of  May — his  advanced  guard  of  70 
Meathian  yeomanry,  having  in  charge  three  howitzers,  whose 
slower  movements  it  was  expected  the  main  force  would  overtake 
long  before  reaching  the  neighborhood  of  danger.  At  Taghmon 
this  force  was  joined  by  Captain  Adams  with  his  command,  and 
thus  reinforced  they  continued  their  march  to  Wexford.  "Within 
three  miles  of  the  town  the  road  wound  round  the  base  of  the 
"  three  rock  "  mountain  ;  evening  fell  as  the  royalists  approached 
this  neighborhood,  where  the  victors  of  Oulart,  Enniscorthy,  and 
Wexford  had  just  improvised  a  new  camp.  A  sharp  volley  from 
the  long-shore-men's  guna,  and  a  furious  onslaught  of  pikes  threw 
the  royal  detachment  into  the  utmost  disorder.  Three  officers  of 
the  Meathian  cavalry,  and  nearly  one  hundred  men  were  placed 
hors  de  combat;  the  three  howitzers,  eleven  gunners,  and  several 
60 


UO  POPULAR   HIBTOBT   Of   IRELAND. 

prisoners  taken ;  making  (he  third  considerable  success  of  th« 
insurgents  within  a  week. 

Wexford  county  now  became  the  theater  of  operations,  on  which 
all  eyes  were  fixed.  The  populace  gathered  as  if  by  instinct  into 
three  great  encampments,  on  Vinegar  hill,  above  Enniscorthy ; 
an  Carrickbyrne,  on  the  road  leading  to  Ross,  and  on  the  liill  of 
Corrigrua,  seven  miles  from  Gorey.  The  principal  leaders  of  the 
first  division  were  lathers  Kearns  and  Clinch,  and  Messrs.  Fitz- 
gerald, Doyle  and  Redmond ;  of  the  second,  Bagenal  Harvey,  and 
Father  Philip  Roche ;  of  the  last,  Anthony  Perry  of  Inch,  Es- 
oiond  Kyan,  and  the  two  Fathers  Murphy,  Michael  and  John. 
The  general  plan  of  operations  was  that  the  third  division  should 
move  by  way  of  Arklow  and  Wicklow  on  the  capital ;  the  second 
to  open  communication  with  Carlow,  Kilkenny,  and  Kildare  by 
Newtownbarry  and  Scollagh-gap ;  while  the  first  was  to  attack 
New  Ross,  and  endeavor  to  hasten  the  rising  in  Munster. 

On  the  1st  of  June,  the  advance  of  the  northern  division  march- 
ing upon  Gorey,  then  occupied  in  force  by  General  Loflus,  were 
encountered  four  miles  from  the  town,  and  driven  back  with  the 
loss  of  about  a  hundred  killed  and  wounded  On  the  4th  of  June, 
Loftus,  at  the  instance  of  Colonel  Walpole,  aid-de-camp  to  the 
Lord  Lieutenant,  who  had  lately  joined  him  wilh  considerable 
reinforcements,  resolved  to  beat  up  the  rebel  quarters  at  Corri- 
grua. It  was  to  be  a  combined  movement ;  Lord  Ancram,  posted 
with  his  militia  and  dragoons  at  the  bridge  of  Scaramalsh,  where 
the  poetic  Banna  joins  the  Slaney,  was  to  prevent  the  arrival  of 
•uccors  from  Vinegar  hill ;  Captain  McManus  with  a  couple  of 
companies  of  yeomanry,  stationed  at  another  exposed  point  from 
which  intelligence  could  be  obtained  and  communicated ;  while 
the  General  and  Colonel  Walpole,  marched  to  the  attack  by  roadi 
some  distance  apart,  which  ran  into  one  within  two  miles  of  Cor 
rigrua  camp.  The  main  body  of  the  king's  troope  were  commil- 
ted  to  the  lead  of  Walpole,  who  had  also  two  six-pounders  and  * 
howitzer.  After  an  hour  and  a  half  s  march  he  found  the  country 
changed  its  character  near  the  village  of  Clogh  (do'),  where  the 
road  descending  from  the  level  arable  land,  dips  suddenly  into 
the  rarrow  and  winding  paaa  of  Tubberneering.  The  sides  of 
the  pass  were  lined  with  a  bushy  shrubbery,  and  the  roadwpjr  ** 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  711 

the  bottom  embanked  with  ditch  and  dyke.  On  came  the  confi- 
dent Walpole,  never  dreaming  that  these  sileat  thickets  were  so 
Boon  to  re-echo  the  cries  of  the  onslaught.  The  4th  dragoon 
guards,  the  Ancient  Britons  under  Sir  Watkyn  Wynne,  the  An" 
trim  militia  under  Colonel  Cope,  had  all  entered  the  defile  before 
the  ambuscade  was  discovered.  Then,  at  the  first  volley  "Walpole 
fell  with  several  of  those  immediately  about  his  person  ;  out  from 
the  shrubbery  rushed  the  pikemen,  clearing  ditch  and  dyke  at  a 
bound ;  dragoons  and  fencibles  went  down  like  the  sward  before 
the  scythe  of  the  mower;  the  three  guns  were  captured  and 
turned  on  the  flying  survivors  ;  the  regimental  flags  taken,  with 
all  the  other  spoils  pertaining  to  such  a  retreat.  It  was,  in  truthf 
an  immense  victory  for  a  mob  of  peasants,  marshalled  by  men  who 
that  day  saw  their  first,  or  at  most  their  second  action.  Before 
forty-eight  hours  they  were  masters  of  Gorey,  and  talked  of  noth- 
ing less  than  the  capture  of  Dublin,  within  another  week  or  fort- 
night I 

From  Vinegar  hill  the  concerted  movement  was  made  against 
Newtownbarry,  on  the  2d  of  June,  the  rebels  advancing  by  both 
banks  of  the  Slaney,  under  cover  of  a  six-pounder — the  only  gun 
they  had  with  them.  The  detachment  in  command  of  the  beau- 
tiful little  town,  half  hidden  in  its  leafy  valley,  was  from  600  to 
800  strong,  with  a  troop  of  dragoons,  and  two  battalion  guns, 
under  command  of  Colonel  L'Estrange ;  these  after  a  sharp  fu- 
silade  on  both  sides  were  driven  out,  but  the  assailants,  instead 
of  following  up  the  blow  dispersed  for  plunder  or  refreshment, 
were  attacked  in  turn,  and  compelled  to  retreat  with  a  reported 
loss  of  400  killed.  Three  days  later,  however,  a  still  more  impor- 
tant action,  and  a  yet  more  disastrous  repulse  from  the  self-same 
cause,  took  pkce  at  New  Ross,  on  the  Barrow. 

The  garrison  of  Ross,  on  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  June,  when 
General  Harvey  appeared  before  it,  consisted  of  1,400  men — Dub- 
lin, Heath,  Donegal  and  Clare  militia,  Mid-Lothian  fencibles,  and 
English  artillery.  General  Johnston — a  veteran  soldier — was  in 
command,  and  the  place,  strong  in  its  well  preserved  old  walls, 
had  not  heard  a  shot  fired  in  anger,  since  the  time  of  Cromwell. 
Harvey  was  reported  to  have  with  him  20,000  men ;  but  if  we 
allow  for  the  exaggeration  of  numbers  common  to  all  such  move- 


Y12  rOPCUUl   H1BTOBY    OF  IBKLAHD. 


meats,  we  may  perhaps  deduct  one-hal£  and  still  leave  Mm  at  UM 
head  of  a  formidable  force  —  10,000  men,  with  three  field  pieces. 
Mr.  Furlong,  a  favorite  officer,  being  sent  forward,  to  summon  the 
town,  was  shot  dowc.  by  a  sentinel,  and  the  attack  began.  Th« 
main  point  of  assault  was  the  gate  known  as  "  three  bullet  gate," 
and  the  hour,  five  o'clock  of  the  lovely  summer's  morning.  The 
obstinacy  with  which  the  town  was  contested,  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact,  that  the  fighting  continued  for  nearly  ten  hours, 
with  the  interruption  of  an  hour  or  two  at  noon.  This  was  the 
fatal  interruption  for  the  rebels.  They  had,  at  a  heavy  cost, 
driven  out  the  royalists,  with  the  loss  of  a  colonel  (Lcrd  Mount- 
joy),  three  captains,  and  above  200  men  killed;  but  of  their 
friends  and  comrades  treble  the  number  had  fallen.  Still  the 
town,  an  object  of  the  first  importance,  was  theirs,  when  worn  out 
with  heat,  fatigue,  and  fasting  since  sunrise,  they  indulged  their.- 
eelves  in  the  luxury  of  a  deep  unmeasured  carouse.  The  fugi- 
tive garrison  finding  themselves  nnpursued,  halted  to  breathe  on 
the  Kilkenny  bank  of  the  river,  were  rallied  by  the  veteran  John- 
son, and  led  back  again  across  the  bridge,  taking  the  surprized 
revellers  completely  unprepared.  A  erf  was  raised  that  this  waa 
a  fresh  force  from  Waterford  ;  the  disorganized  multitude  endeav- 
ored to  rally  in  turn,  but  before  the  leaders  could  collect  their 
men,  the  town  was  once  more  in  possession  of  the  king's  troops. 
The  rebels,  in  their  turn,  unpursued  by  their  exhausted  enemies, 
fell  back  upon  their  camping  ground  of  the  night  before,  at  Cor- 
bet hill  and  Slieve-kielter.  At  the  latter,  Father  Philip  Roche, 
dissatisfied  with  Harvey's  management,  established  a  separate  com- 
mand, which  he  transferred  to  a  layman  of  his  own  name,  Edward 
Roche,  with  whom  he  continued  to  act  and  advise  during  the  re- 
mainder of  this  memorable  month. 

The  summer  of  1798  was  for  an  Irish  summer  remarkably  dry 
and  warm.  The  heavy  Atlantic  rains  which  at  all  seasons  art 
poured  out  upon  that  soil,  seemed  suspended  in  favor  of  the  in- 
surgent multitudes,  amounting  to  80,000  or  40,000  at  the  highest, 
who  oil  the  different  hill  summits  posted  their  nightly  sentinel*, 
and  threw  themselves  down  on  turf  and  heather  to  snatch  a  short 
reposo.  The  kindling  of  a  beacon,  the  lowing  of  caltlp,  or  th« 
hurried  arrival  of  scout  or  messenger,  hardly  interfered  with 


»oruLAB  msioar  or  I&BLAKD.  713 

•lumbers  which  the  fatigues  of  the  day,  and,  unhappily  also,  the 
potations  of  the  night  rendered  doubly  deep.  An  early  morning 
mass  mustered  all  the  Catholics,  unless  the  very  depraved,  to  tha 
chaplain's  tent — for  several  of  the  officers,  and  the  chaplains  alwayg 
Were  supplied  with  tents ;  and  then  a  hasty  meal  was  snatched 
before  the  sun  was  fairly  above  the  horizon,  and  the  day's  work 
commenced.  The  endurance  exhibited  by  the  rebels,  their  per- 
sonal strength,  swiftness  and  agility ;  their  tenacity  of  life,  and 
the  ease  with  which  their  worst  wounds  were  healed,  excited  the 
astonishment  of  the  surgeons  and  officers  of  the  regular  army. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  virtuous  lives  led  by  that  peaceful  peasantry 
before  the  outbreak,  enabled  them  to  withstand  privations  and 
hardships  under  which  the  better  fed  and  better  clad  Irish  yeomen 
and  English  guardsmen  would  have  sunk  prostrate  in  a  week. 

Several  signs  now  marked  the  turning  of  the  tide  against  the 
men  of  Wexford.  Waterford  did  not  rise  after  the  battle  of  Ross  > 
while  Munster,  generally,  was  left  to  undecided  councils,  or  held 
back  in  hopes  of  another  French  expedition.  The  first  week  of 
June  had  passed  over,  and  neither  northward  nor  westward  waa 
there  any  movement  formidable  enough  to  draw  off  from  the  de- 
voted _county  the  combined  armies  which  were  now  directed 
against  its  camps.  A  gunboat  fleet  lined  the  coast  from  Bannow 
round  to  Wicklow,  which  soon  after  appeared  off  "Wexford  bar, 
and  forced  an  entrance  into  the  harbor.  A  few  days  earlier,  Gen- 
eral Needham  marched  from  Dublin,  and  took  up  his  position  at 
Arklow,  at  the  head  of  a  for«e  variously  stated  at  1,600  to  2,000 
men,  composed  of  120  cavalry  under  Sir  Watkyn  Wynne,  two 
brigades  of  militia  under  Colonels  Cope  and  Maxwell,  and  a 
brigade  of  English  and  Scotch  fencibles  under  Colonel  Skerrett. 
There  were  also  at  Arklow  about  300  of  the  Wexford  and  Wick- 
low  mounted  yeomanry  raised  by  Lord  Wicklow,  Lord  Mount- 
norris,  and  other  gentlemen  of  the  neighborhood.  Early  on  the 
morning  of  the  9th  of  June,  the  northern  division  of  the  rebels 
left  Gorey  in  two  columns,  in  order  if  possible  to  drive  this  force 
from  Arklow.  One  body  proceeding  by  the  coast  road  hoped  to 
turn  the  English  position  by  way  of  the  strand,  the  other  taking 
the  inner  line  of  the  Dublin  road,  was  to  assail  the  town  &t  its 
opper  or  inland  suburb.  But  General  Needham  had  made  th« 
60+ 


714  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF    IRELAND. 

most  of  Ms  two  days'  possession;  barricades  were  erected  acroM 
the  road,  and  at  the  entrance  to  the  main  street ;  the  graveyard 
and  bridge  commanding  the  approach  by  the  shore  road,  were 
mounted  with  ordnance;  the  cavalry  were  posted  where  they 
could  best  operate,  near  the  strand ;  the  barrack  wall  was  lined 
with  a  baiufuette  or  stage,  from  which  the  musketeers  could  pour 
their  fire  with  the  greatest  advantage,  and  every  other  precaution 
taken  to  give  the  rebels  a  warm  reception.  The  action  commenced 
early  in  the  afternoon,  and  lasted  till  eight  in  the  evening — five 
or  six  hours.  The  inland  column  suffered  most  severely  from  the 
marksmen  on  the  banquette,  and  the  gallant  Father  Michael  Mur- 
phy, whom  his  followers  believed  to  be  invulnerable,  fell  leading 
them  on  to  the  charge  for  the  third  time.  On  the  side  of  the  sea, 
Esmond  Kyan  was  badly  wounded  in  the  arm,  which  he  was  sub 
eequently  obliged  to  have  amputated,  and  though  the  fearless 
Shilmaliers  drove  the  cavalry  into  and  over  the  Ovoca,  discipline 
and  ordnance  prevailed  once  again,  over  numbers  and  courage. 
As  night  fell,  the  assailants  retired  slowly  towards  Coolgreney, 
carrying  off  nine  carloads  of  their  wounded,  and  leaving,  perhaps, 
as  many  more  on  the  field  ;  their  loss  was  variously  reported 
from  700  to  1,000,  and  even  1,600.  The  opposite  force  returned 
less  than  100  killed,  including  Captain  Enoz,  and  about  as  many 
wounded.  The  repulse  was  even  more  than  that  at  Ross,  dispirit- 
ing to  the  rebels,  who,  as  a  last  resort,  now  decided  to  concentrate 
all  their  strength  on  the  favorite  position  at  Vinegar  HUL 

Against  this  encampment,  therefore,  the  entire  available  force 
of  regulars  and  militia  within  fifty  miles  of  the  spot  were  con. 
centrated  by  orders  of  Lord  Lake,  the  comraander-in  chief. 
General  Dundas  from  Wicklow  was  to  join  General  Loftus  at 
Carnew  on  the  18th  ;  General  Needham  was  to  advance  simulta- 
neously to  Gorey ;  General  Sir  Henry  Johnson  to  unite  at  Old 
Ross  with  Sir  James  Duff  from  Carlow ;  Sir  Charles  Asgill  was  to 
occupy  Gore's  bridge  and  Borris ;  Sir  John  Moore  was  to  land  at 
BallyhLck  ferry,  march  to  Foulke's  mill,  and  united  with  Johnson 
and  Duff,  to  assail  the  rebel  camp  on  Carrickbyrne.  These  vari- 
ous movements  ordered  on  the  18th,  were  to  be  completed  by  the 
20th,  on  which  day  from  their  various  new  positions,  the  entire 
force,  led  by  these  six  general  officers,  was  to  surround  Vinegar 


POPULAR   HISTORY    07  IRELAND.  71* 

Hill,  and  make  a  simultaneous  attack  upon  the  last  stronghold  of 
the  Wexford  rebellion. 

This  elaborate  plan  failed  of  complete  execution  in  two  points. 
first,  the  camp  on  Carrickbyrne,  instead  of  waiting  the  attack, 
Bent  down  its  fighting  men  to  Foulke's  Mill,  where,  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  20th  they  beat  up  Sir  John  Moore's  quarters,  aud  maintain- 
ed from  3  o'clock  till  dark,  what  that  officer  calls  "  a  pretty  sharp 
action."  Several  times  they  were  repulsed  and  again  formed  be- 
hind the  ditches  and  renewed  the  conflict ;  but  the  arrival  of  two 
fresh  regiments,  under  Lord  Dalhousie,  taught  them  that  there 
was  no  farther  chance  of  victory.  By  this  affair,  however,  though 
at  a  heavy  cost,  they  had  prevented  the  junction  of  all  the  troops, 
and,  not  without  satisfaction,  they  now  followed  the  two  Roches, 
the  priest  and  the  layman,  to  the  original  posftion  of  the  moun- 
tain of  Forth;  Sir  John  Moore,  on  his  part,  taking  the  same 
direction,  until  he  halted  within  sight  of  the  walls  of  Wexford. 
The  other  departure  from  Lord  Lake's  plan  was  on  the  side  of  Gen- 
eral NeedJiam,  who  was  ordered  to  approach  the  point  of  attack 
by  the  circuitous  route  of  Oulart,  but  who  did  not  come  up  in 
time  to  complete  the  investment  of  the  hill. 

On  the  morning  of  the  appointed  day,  about  13,000  royal 
troops  were  in  movement  against  the  20,000  rebels  whom  they 
Intended  to  dislodge.  Sir  James  Duff  obtained  possession  of  an 
eminence  which  commanded  the  lower  line  of  the  rebel  encamp- 
ment, and  from  this  point  a  brisk  cannonade  was  opened  against 
the  opposite  force ;  at  the  same  time  the  columns  of  Lake,  Wil- 
ford,  Dundas,  and  Johnson,  pushed  up  the  south-eastern,  northern 
and  western  sides  of  the  eminence,  partially  covered  by  the  fire 
of  these  guns,  so  advantageously  placed.  After  an  hour  and  a 
half's  desperate  fighting,  the  ret  ds  broke  and  fled  by  the  unguarded 
side  of  tike  hill.  Their  route  was  complete,  and  many  were  cut 
down  by  the  cavalry,  as  they  pressed  in  dense  masses  on  each 
other,  over  the  level  fields  and  out  on  the  open  highways.  Still 
this  action  was  far  from  being  one  of  the  most  fatal  as  to  loss  of 
life,  fought  in  that  county ;  the  rebel  dead  were  numbered  only 
at  400,  and  th  3  royalists  killed  and  wounded  at  less  than  half 
that  number. 

It  was  the  last  considerable  action  of  the  Wexford  rising,  and 


716  POPULAR    UI8TORT    OF    IRELAND. 

all  the  consequences  which  followed  being  attributed  arbitrarily 
to  this  cause,  helped  to  invest  it  with  a  disproportionate  import- 
ance  The  only  leader  lost  on  the  rebel  side  was  Father  Clinch, 
of  Enniscorthy,  who  encountered  Lord  Roden  hand  to  hand  in 
the  retreat,  but  who,  while  engaged  with  his  lordship  whom  he 
wounded,  was  shot  down  by  a  trooper.  The  disorganization, 
however,  which  followed  on  the  dispersion,  was  irreparable.  One 
column  had  taken  the  "nad  by  Gorey  to  the  mountains  of  Wick- 
low  —  another  to  Wexloro,  where  they  split  into  two  parts,  a 
portion  crossing  the  Slaney  into  the  sea-coast  parishes,  and  facing 
northward  by  the  shore  road,  the  other  falling  back  on  "  the 
three  rocks"  encampment,  where  the  Messrs.  Roche  held  together 
a  fragment  of  their  former  command.  Wexford  town,  on  the 
2'Jd,  was  abandoned  to  Lord  Lake,  who  established  himself  in  the 
house  of  Governor  Keogh,  the  owner  being  lodged  in  the  common 
jail.  Within  the  week,  Bagenal  Harvey,  Father  Phillip  Roche, 
and  Kelly  of  KiHane,  had  surrendered  in  despair,  while  Messrs. 
Grognn  and  Colclough,  who  had  secreted  themselves  in  a  cave  in 
the  great  Saltee  Island,  were  discovered,  and  conducted  to  the 
itainc  prison.  Notwithstanding  the  capitulation  agreed  to  by  Lord 
Kingsborough,  the  execution  and  decapitation  of  all  these  gentle- 
men speedily  followed,  and  their  ghastly  faces  looked  down  for  many 
a  day  from  the  iron  spikes  above  the  entrance  of  Wexford  Couifc 
House.  Mr.  Esmond  Kyan,  the  popular  hero  of  the  district,  as 
merciful  as  brave,  was  discovered  some  time  subsequently  paying 
a  stealthy  visit  to  his  family ;  he  was  put  to  death  on  the  spot, 
and  his  body  weighted  with  heavy  stones,  thrown  into  the  har- 
bor. A  few  mornings  afterwards  the  incoming  tide  deposited  it 
close  by  the  dwelling  of  his  father-in  law,  and  the  rites  of  Chris- 
tian burial,  BO  dear  to  all  his  race,  were  hurriedly  rendered  to 
the  beloved  remains. 

The  insurrection  in  this  county,  while  it  abounded  in  instances 
of  individual  and  general  heroism,  was  stained  also,  on  both 
sidec  by  many  acts  of  diabolical  cruelty.  The  aggressors,  both 
in  tin)  and  in  crime  were  the  yeomanry  and  military;  but  the 
popular  movemen  dragged  wretches  to  the  surface  who  delighted 
In  repaying  torture  with  torture,  and  death  with  death.  Th« 
Butcheries  of  Dunlavin  and  Carnew  were  repaid  by  the  mass* 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRKLAKD.  717 

er«s  at  Scullabogue  and  Wexford  bridge,  in  the  former  of  which 
110,  and  in  the  latter  35  or  40  persons  were  put  to  death  in  cold 
blood,  by  the  monsters  who  absented  themselves  from  the  battles 
of  Ross  and  Vinegar  Hill  The  executions  at  Wexford  bridge 
would  probably  have  been  swelled  to  double  the  number,  had  not 
Father  Corrin,  one  of  the  priests  of  the  town,  rushing  in  between 
his  Protestant  neighbors  and  the  ferocious  Captain  Dixon,  and 
summoning  all  present  to  pray,  invoked  the  Almighty  "  to  show 
them  the  same  mercy  "  they  showed  their  prisoners.  This  awful 
supplication  calmed  even  that  savage  rabble,  and  no  further 
execution  took  place.  Nearly  forty  years  afterwards,  Captain 
Kellet,  of  Clonard,  ancestor  of  the  Arctic  discoverer,  and"  others 
whom  he  had  rescued  from  the  very  grasp  of  the  executioner, 
followed  to  the  grave  that  revered  and  devoted  minister  of 
mercy  I 

It  would  be  a  profitless  task  to  draw  out  a  parallel  of  the  crimes 
committed  on  both  sides.  Two  facts  only  need  be  recorded: 
that  although  from  1Y98  to  1800,  not  less  than  sixty-five  places  of 
Catholic  worship  were  demolished  or  burned  in  Lekister,  (twenty- 
two  of  which  were  in  Wexford  county),  only  one  Protestant 
church,  that  of  Old  Boss,  was  destroyed  in  retaliation ;  and  that 
although  towards  men,  especially  men  in  arms,  the  rebels  acted 
on  the  fierce  Mosaic  maxim  of  "  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for 
•  tooth,"  no  outrage  upon  women  is  laid  to  their  charge,  even  by 
their  most  exasperated  enemies. 


CHAPTER  XVH. 

TKK  rNSCfiRECTION   ELSEWHERE. FATE   OF  THE   LEADING    UHITU) 

IRISHMEN. 

ON  the  21st  of  June,  the  Marquis  Cornwallis,  whose  name  is  so 
familiar  in  American  and  East  Indian  history,  arrived  in  Dublin, 
to  assume  the  supreme  power,  both  civil  and  military.  As  hia 
cldef  secretary,  he  recommenced  Lord  Casllereagh,  who  had  acted 


16  POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

in  that  capacity  during  the  latter  part  of  Lord  Camden'a  admin- 
istration in  consequence  of  Mr.  Pelham'a  illness ;  and  tire  Pitt- 
Portland  administration  appointed  his  lordship  accordingly,  be- 
cause among  other  good  and  sufficient  reasons  "  he  was  so  unlike 
an  Iriakman." 

Wkile  the  new  viceroy  came  to  Ireland  still  more  resolute  than 
his  predecessor  to  bring  about  the  long-desired  legislative  union, 
it  is  but  justice  to  his  memory  to  say,  that  he  as  resolutely  re- 
sisted the  policy  of  torture  and  provocation  pursued  under  Lord 
Cunuleii.  That  policy  had,  indeed,  served  its  pernicious  purpose^ 
and  it.was  now  possible  for  a  new  ruler  to  turn  a  new  leaf;  this 
Lord  Cornwallis  did  from  th«  hour  of  his  arrival,  not  without  in- 
curring the  ill-concealed  displeasure  of  the  Castle  caboL  But  hia 
position  gave  him  means  of  protection  which  Sir  Ralph  Aber- 
oroniby  had  not ;  he  was  known  to  enjoy  the  personal  confidence 
of  the  king ;  and  those  who  did  not  hesitate  three  months  before 
to  assail  by  every  abusive  epithet  the  humane  Scottish  baronet, 
hesitated  long  before  criticising  with  equal  freedom  the  all- 
powerful  viceroy. 

The  sequel  of  the  insurrection  may  be  briefly  related :  next  to 
Wexford,  the  adjoining  county  of  Wkklow,  famous  throughout 
the  world  for  its  lakes  and  glens,  maintained  the  chief  brunt  of 
the  Leinster  battle.  The  brothers  Byrne,  of  Ballymanus,  with 
Holt,  Kackett,  and  other  local  leaders,  were  for  months,  from  the 
difficult  nature  of  the  country,  enabled  to  defy  those  combined 
movements  by  which,  as  hi  a  huge  net,  Lord  Lake  had  swept  up 
the  camps  of  Wexford.  At  Hacketstown,  on  the  26th  of  June, 
the  Byrnes  were  repulsed  with  considerable  loss,  but  at  Ballyellis, 
on  the  30th,  fortune  and  skill  gave  them  and  their  Wexford  com- 
•fcdes  a  victory,  resembling  in  many  respects  that  of  dough, 
"teneral  Needham,  who  hud  again  established  his  headquarters  at 
Corey,  detaclred  Colonel  Preston,  with  some  troops  of  Ancient 
Brit  out),  the  -H1i  and  5th  Dragoons,  and  tiiree  yeomanry  corps,  to 
attack  the  insurgents  wko  were  observed  in  force  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Monaseed.  Aware  of  this  movement,  the  Byrnes 
prepared  in  the  ravine  of  Ballyellis  a  well-laid  ambuscade,  barri- 
eadiig  with  carts  and  trees  the  farther  end  of  the  pass.  Attacked 
by  the  royalists  they  retreated  towards  thia  pass,  were  hotfy  pop- 


POPULAR    BISTORT    O»   IRELAND.  71  § 

•ved.  mnd  then  turned  on  their  pursuers.  Two  officers  anil  sixty 
ciea  were  killed  in  the  trap,  wlrle  the  terrified  roar- rank  lied  for 
their  lives  to  the  shelter  of  their  headquarters.  At  BullyraLeene, 
on  the  2d  of  July,  the  king's  troops  sustained  another  check  in 
which  they  loet  two  officers  and  ten  men,  but  at  Ballygullen,  on 
the  4th,  the  insurgents  were  surrounded  between  the  forces  of 
General  Needham,  Sir  James  Duff,  and  the  Marquis  of  Huntley. 
This  was  the  last  considerable  action  in  which  the  Wicklow  aaid 
Wexford  men  were  unitedly  engaged.  In  the  dispersion  which 
followed,  "  Billy  Byrne  of  Ballymanus,"  the  hero  of  his  county, 
paid  the  forfeit  of  his  life ;  while  his  brother  Garrett  subse- 
quently surrendered,  and  was  included  in  the  Banishment  Act. 

Anthony  Perry,  of  Inch,  and  Father  Kearns,  leading  a  much 
diminished  band  into  Kildare,  formed  a  junction  with  Aylmer  and 
Reynolds  of  that  county,  and  marched  into  Meath,  with  a  view 
of  reaching  and  surprising  Athlone.  The  plan  was  boldly  and 
well  conceived,  but  their  means  of  execution  were  deplorably  de- 
ficient. At  Clonard  they  were  repulsed  by  a  handful  of  troopa 
well  armed  and  postad ;  a  combined  movement  always  possible 
in  Meath,  drove  lliem  from  side  to  side  during  the  mid-week  of 
July,  until  at  length,  hunted  down  as  they  were,  they  broke  up 
in  twos  and  threes  to  seek  any  means  of  escape.  Father  Kearns 
and  Mr.  Perry  were,  however,  arrested,  and  executed  by  martial 
'.aw  at  Endenderry.  Both  died  bravely;  the  priest  sustaining 
and  exhorting  his  companion  to  the  last. 

Still  another  band  of  the  Wexford  men  unVler  Father  John 
Murphy  and  Walter  Devereux  crossed  the  Barrow  at  Gore's 
bridge,  and  marched  upon  Kilkenny.  At  Lowgrange  they  sur- 
prised an  outpost ;  at  Castlecomer,  after  a  sharp  action,  they  took 
the  town,  which  Sir  Charles  Asgill  endeavored,  but  without  suc- 
cess, to  relieve.  Thence  they  continued  their  march  towards 
Athy  iu  Kildare,  but  being  caught  between  two  or  rather  three 
fires,  that  of  Major  Mathews,  from  Maryboro',  General  Dunne, 
from  Athy,  and  Sir  Charles  Asgill,  they  retreated  on  Old  Leigh- 
lin,  as  if  seeking  the  shelter  of  the  Carlow  mountains.  At  Kil- 
comney  hill,  however,  they  were  forced  into  action  under  most 
unfavorable  circumstances,  and  utterly  routed.  One  Father  Mur- 
phy, fell  in  the  engagement,  the  other,  the  precursor  of  the  insnr 


720 

reotion,  was  captured  three  days  afterward,  and  conveyed  A 
prisoner  to  General  Duff 'a  headquarters  at  Tullow.  Here  he  w  m 
put  on  hie  trial  before  a  military  commission  composed  of  Sir 
James  Duff,  Lord  Roden,  Colonels  Eden  and  Foster,  and  Major 
IlalL  Hall  had  the»meanness  to  put  to  him,  prisoner  aa  he  was, 
several  insulting  questions,  which  at  length  the  high-spirited 
rebel  answered  with  a  blow.  The  commission  thought  him  highly 
dangerous,  and  instantly  ordered  him  to  execution.  His  body  waa 
burned,  his  head  spiked  on  the  market  house  of  Tullow,  and  his 
memory  gibbetted  in  all  the  loyal  publications  of  the  period.  On 
his  person,  before  execution,  were  found  a  crucifix,  a  pix,  and  let- 
ters from  many  Protestants,  asking  his  protection ;  as  to  his  repu- 
tation, the  priest  who  girded  on  the  sword  only  when  he  found  Ins 
altar  overthrown  and  his  flock  devoured  by  wolves,  need  not  fear 
to  look  posterity  in  the  face. 

Of  the  other  Leinster  leaders,  Walter  Devereux,  the  last  col 
league  of  Father  Murphy,  was  arrested  at  Cork,  on  the  eve  of 
sailing  for  America,  tried  and  executed  ;  Fitzgerald  and  Aylmer 
were  spared  on  condition  of  expatriation  ;  months  afterwards,  Holt 
surrendered,  was  transported,  and  returned  after  several  yeass, 
to  end  his  days  where  he  began  his  career;  Dwyer  alone  main- 
tained the  life  of  a  Rapparee  for  five  lon^  yearj  among  the  hills 
of  Wicklow,  where  his  adventures  were  often  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  throw  all  fictitious  conceptions  of  an  outlaw's  life  into  common- 
place by  comparison.  Except  in  the  fastnesses  frequented  by 
this  extraordinary  man,  and  in  the  wood  of  Killaughram,  in 
Wexford,  wliere  the  outhiws  with  the  last  stroke  of  national  hu- 
mor, assumed  the  name  of  T/ie  Babes  in  Hue  Wood,  the  Leinster 
insurrection  w&a  utterly  trodden  out  within  two  mouths  from  its 
first  beginning,  on  the  23d  of  May.  So  weak  against  discipline, 
arms,  munitions  and  money,  are  all  that  mere  naked  valor  and 
devoti<">a  can  accomplish  I 

In  Ulster,  on  the  organization  of  which  so  much  time  and  labor 
bad  been  expended  for  four  or  five  years  preceding,  the  rising 
was  nut  more  general  than  in  Leinster,  and  the  actual  Htruggle 
lasted  only  a  week.  The  two  counties  which  moved  en  mastt 
were  Down  ni>d  Antrim,  the  original  chiefs  of  which,  sm%h  at 
Thomas  Russell  and  Samuel  Neilson,  were  unfortunately  In  prison, 


HISTORY  OF  INLAND.  721 

The  next  leader  on  whom  the  men  of  Antrim  relied,  resigned  Mi 
command  on  the  very  eve  of  the  appointed  day ;  this  disappoint- 
ment and  the  arrest  of  the  Rev.  Steele  Dickson  in  Down,  com- 
pelled a  full  fortnight's  delay.  On  the  7th  of  June,  however,  tha 
more  determined  spirits  resolved  on  action,  and  the  first  move- 
ment was  to  seize  the  town  of  Antrim,  which,  if  they  could  have 
held  it,  would  have  given  them  command  of  the  communications 
with  Donegal  and  Down,  from  both  of  which  they  might  have 
expected  important  additions  to  their  ranks.  The  leader  in  this 
enterprise  was  Henry  John  McCracktn,  a  cotton  manufacturer  of 
Belfast,  thirty -two  years  of  age,  well  educated,  accomplished  and 
resolute,  with  whom  was  associated  a  brother  of  William  Orr,  the 
proto-martyr  of  the  Ulster  Union.  The  town  of  Antrim  waa 
occupied  by  the  22d  light  dragoons,  Colonel  Lumley,  and  the  local 
yeomanry  under  Lord  O'Neill.  In  the  first  assault  the  insurgents 
were  successful,  Lord  O'Neill,  five  officers,  forty-seven  rank  and 
file  having  fallon,  and  two  guns  being  captured;  but  Lumley's 
dragoons  had  hardly  vanished  out  of  sight,  when  a  strong  rein- 
forcement from  Blaris  camp  arrived  and  renewed  the  action, 
changing  premature  exultation  into  panic  and  confusion.  Between 
two  and  three  hundred  of  the  rebels  fell,  and  McCracken  and  his 
staff  deserted  by  their  hasty  levies,  were  arrested  wearied  and 
hopeless,  about  a  month  later,  wandering  among  the  Antrim  1  ills. 
The  leaders  w«re  tried  at  Belfast  and  executed. 

In  Down  two  actions  were  fought,  one  at  Saintfield  on  ihe  7th 
of  June,  under  Dr.  Jackson — where  Colonel  Stapleton  was  severely 
handled — and  another  and  more  important  one  at  BallynaMnch, 
under  Henry  MUETO,  on  the  13th,  where  Nugent — the  district 
General,  commanded  in  person.  Here,  after  a  gallant  defense, 
the  men  of  Down  were  utterly  routed ;  their  leader,  alone  and  on 
foot,  was  captured  some  five  or  six  miles  from  the  field,  and  ftxe- 
cuted  two  days  afterward  before  his  own  door  at  Lisburn.  H« 
died  with  the  utmost  composure ;  his  wife  and  mother  looking 
down  on  the  awful  scene  from  the  windows  of  his  own  house. 

In  Munster,  with  the  exception  of  a  trifling  skirmish  between 

the  Westmeath  yeomanry  under  Sir  Hugh  O'Reilly,  with  whom 

were  the  Caithness  legion  under  Major  Innes,  and  a  body  of  300 

or  400  ill-armed  peasants  who  attacked  them  on  the  19th  of  Jno^ 

61 


722  POPULAR    H1S10UY   OP   IEELAMU. 

on  the  road  from  Clonakilty  to  Bandon,  there  was  uo  notablt 
attempt  at  insurrection.  But  iu  Conuaught  very  unexpectedly, 
&e  late  as  the  end  of  August,  the  flame  extinguished  in  blood  iu 
Leinster  and  Ulster,  again  blazed  up  for  some  days  with  portent- 
ous brightness.  The  counties  of  Sligo,  Mayo,  Roscommon  and 
Gal  way,  had  been  partially  organized  by  those  fugitives  from 
Orange  oppression  in  the  North,  who,  in  the  years  '95,  '96  and  '97, 
hud  been  compelled  to  flee  for  their  lives  into  Oonnaught,  to  the 
number  of  several  thousands.  They  brought  with  the  tale  of  their 
sufferings  the  secret  of  Defenderism ;  they  first  taught  the  peas- 
antry of  the  West,  who,  safe  in  their  isolated  situation  and  their 
overwhelming  numbers,  were  more  familiar  with  poverty  than 
with  persecution,  what  manner  of  men  then  held  sway  over  all 
the  rest  of  the  country,  and  how  easily  it  would  be  for  Irishmen 
once  united  and  backed  by  France,  to  establish,  under  their  own 
green  flag,  both  religious  and  civil  liberty. 

When,  therefore,  three  French  frigates  cast  anchor  in  Killalla 
Bay,  on  the  22d  of  August,  they  did  not  find  the  country  wholly 
unprepared,  though  far  from  being  as  ripe  for  revolt  as  they  ex- 
pected. These  ships  had  on  board  1,000  men,  with  arms  for  1,000 
more,  under  command  of  General  Humbert,  who  had  taken  on 
himself  in  the  state  of  anarchy  which  Chen  prevailed  in  France, 
to  sail  from  La  Rochelle,  with  this  handful  of  men,  in  aid  of  the 
insurrection.  With  Humbert  were  Mathew  Tone  and  Bartholo- 
mew Teeling;  and  immediately  on  his  arrival  he  was  joined  by 
Messrs.  McDonnell,  Moore,  Bullew,  Barrett,  O'Dowd,  and  O'Don- 
nell  of  Mayo,  Blake  of  Galway,  Plunkett  of  Roscommou,  and  a 
few  other  influential  gentlemen  of  that  Province — almost  all  Cath- 
olics. Three  days  were  spent  at  Killalla  which  was  easily  taken, 
in  landing  stores,  enrolling  recruits,  and  sending  out  parties  of 
observation.  On  the  4th,  (Sunday,)  Humbert  entered  Ballina 
without  resistance,  and  on  the  same  night  set  ovt  for  Costlebar, 
the  county  town.  By  this  time  intelligence  of  his  landing  was 
spread  over  the  whole  country,  and  both  Lord  Lake  and  General 
Hutchinson  had  advanced  to  Castlebar,  where  they  had  from  2,000 
to  8,000  men  under  their  command.  The  place  could  be  reached 
only  by  two  routes  from  the  northwest  by  the  Fozford  road,  or  a 
long  deserted  mountain  road  which  led  over  the  pass  of  Barn* 


POPUIAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  723 

gee,  within  sight  of  the  towi.  Humbert  accustomed  to  the  long 
marches  and  difficult  country  of  La  Vendee,  chose  the  unfre- 
quented and  therefore  unguarded  route,  and  to  the  consternation 
of  the  British  generals  descended  through  the  pass  of  Barnagee, 
soon  after  sunrise,  on  the  morning  of  Monday,  August  27th.  His 
force  consisted  of  900  French  bayonets,  and  between  2,000  and 
8,000  new  recruits ;  the  action  which  commenced  at  7  o'clock, 
was  short,  sharp,  and  decisive ;  the  yeomanry  and  regulars  broke 
and  fled,  some  of  them  never  drawing  reiii  till  they  reached 
Tuam,  while  others  carried  their  fears  and  their  falsehoods  as  far 
inland  as  Athlone — more  than  sixty  miles  from  the  scene  of  action. 
In  this  engagement,  still  remembered  as  "  the  races,"  the  royalists 
confessed  to  the  loss  killed,  wounded,  or  prisoners,  of  18  officers, 
and  about  350  men,  while  the  French  commander  estimated  the 
killed  alone  at  600.  Fourteen  British  guns  and  five  stand  of 
colors  were  also  taken.  A  hot  pursuit  was  continued  for  some 
distance  by  the  native  troops  under  Mathew  Tone,  Teeling,  and 
the  Mayo  officers ;  but  Lord  Roden's  famous  corps  of  "  Fox-hun- 
ters," covered  the  retreat  and  checked  the  pursuers  at  French 
hill.  Immediately  after  the  battle  a  Provincial  Government  was 
established  at  Castlebar,  with  Mr.  Moore  of  Moore  Hall,  as  Presi- 
dent ;  proclamations  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  at  large,  com- 
missions to  raise  men,  and  assignats  payable  by  the  future  Irish 
Republic,  were  issued  in  its  name. 

Meanwhile  the  whole  of  the  royalist  forces  were  now  in  move- 
ment toward  the  capital  of  Mayo,  as  they  had  been  toward  Vine- 
gar hill  two  months  before.  Sir  John  Moore  and  General  Hunter 
marched  from  Wexford  towards  the  Shannon.  General  Taylor 
with  2,500  men  advanced  from  Sligo  towards  Castlebar ;  Colonel 
Maxwell  was  ordered  from  Enniskillen  to  assume  command  at 
Sligo;  General  Nugent  from  Lisburn  occupied  Enniskillen,  and 
the  Viceroy,  leaving  Dublin  in  person,  advanced  rapidly  through 
the  midland  counties  to  Kilbeggan,  and  ordered  Lord  Lake  and 
General  Hufrchinson,  with  such  of  their  command  as  could  be  de- 
pended on,  to  assume  the  aggressive  from  the  direction  of  Tuam. 
Thus  Humbert  and  his  allies  found  themselvee  surrounded  on  all 
•ides — their  retreat  cut  off  by  sea,  for  their  frigates  had  returned 
to  France  immediately  on  their  landing;  three  thousand  men 


724  POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

against  not  less  than  thirty  thousand,  with  at  least  aa  ma»  /  moN 
in  reserve,  ready  to  be  called  into  action  at  a  day's  notice. 

The  French  general  determined  if  possible  to  rench  the  moun- 
tains of  Leitrim,  and  open  communications  with  Ulster,  and  the 
northern  coast,  upon  which  he  hoped  soon  to  see  succor  arrive 
from  France.  With  this  object  he  marched  from  Castlebar  to 
Cooloney,  (35  miles),  in  one  day  ;  here  he  sustained  a  check  from 
Colonel  Vereker's  militia,  which  necessitated  a  change  of  route ; 
turning  aside,  he  passed  rapidl}'  through  Dromahaine,  Manor- 
Hamilton,  and  Ballintra,  making  for  Granard  from  which  accounts 
of  a  formidable  popular  outbreak  had  just  reached  him.  In  three 
days  and  a  half  he  had  marched  110  miles,  flinging  half  his  guns 
into  the  rivers  that  he  crossed,  lest  they  should  fall  into  the 
hands  of  his  pursuers.  At  Ballinamuck,  county  Longford,  on  the 
borders  of  Leitrim,  he  found  himself  fairly  surrounded,  on  the 
morning  of  the  8th  of  September ;  and  here  he  prepared  to  make 
a  last  desperate  stand.  Tl  e  end  could  not  be  doubtful,  the  numbers 
against  him  being  ten  to  one;  after  an  action  of  half  an  hour's 
duration,  two  hundred  of  the  French  having  thrown  down  their 
arms,  the  remainder  surrendered,  as  prisoners  of  war.  For  the 
rebels  no  torius  were  thought  of,  and  the  full  vengeance  of  the 
victors  was  reserved  for  them.  Mr.  Blake,  who  had  formerly 
boon  a  British  officer  was  executed  on  the  field  ;  Mathew  Tone 
and  Teeling  were  executed  within  the  week  In  Dublin  ;  Mr.  Moore, 
President  of  th«  Provisional  Government  was  sentenced  to  banish- 
ment by  the  clemency  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  but  died  on  shipboard ; 
ninety  of  the  Longford  and  Kilkenny  militia  who  had  joined  the 
French  were  hanged,  and  the  country  generally  given  up  to  pil- 
lage and  massacre.  As  an  evidence  of  the  excessive  thirst  for 
blood  it  may  be  mentioned  that  at  the  recapture  of  KHlaila  a  few 
days  later,  four  hundred  persons  were  killed,  of  whom  fully  oiie- 
kalf  were  non-combatants. 

T  1/e  disorganization  of  all  government  in  France  in  the  latter 
half  of  y.s,  was  illustrated  not  only  by  Humbert's  unauthorized 
adventure,  but  by  a  still  weaker  demonstration  under  General 
Beay  and  Napper  Tandy,  about  the  Bauie  time.  With  a  single 
armed  bri£  those  daring  allies  made  a  descent  on  the  17th  of  Sep- 
tember, cm  Uul  Min  Island,  w«H  equipped  with  eloquent proclama- 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  25 

lions,  bearing  the  date  "  first  year  of  Irish  liberty."  From  th« 
postmaster  of  the  island  they  ascertained  Humbert's  fate,  and 
immediately  turned  the  prow  of  their  solitary  ship  in'the  opp<- 
eite  direction ;  Reay,  to  rise  in  after  times  to  honor  and 
power ;  Tandy,  to  continue  in  old  age,  the  dashing  career  of  his 
manhood,  and  to  expiate  in  exile  the  crime  of  preferring  the  coun- 
try of  his  birth  to  the  general  centralizing  policy  of  the  empire 
with  which  she  was  united.  Twelve  days  after  the  combat  at 
Ballinamuck,  while  Humbert  and  his  men  were  on  their  way 
through  England  to  France,  a  new  French  fleet,  under  Admiral 
Bompart,  consisting  of  one  H-gun  ship,  "  the  Hoche,"  eight 
frigates,  and  two  smaller  vessels,  sailed  from  Brest.  On  board 
this  fleet  were  embarked  3,000  men  under  General  Hardi,  the 
remnant  of  the  army  once  menacing  England.  In  this  fleet 
sailed  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  true  to  his  motto  nil  despera'idum, 
with  two  or  three  other  refugees  of  less  celebrity.  The  troops 
of  General  Hardi  however,  were  destined  never  to  land.  On  the 
12th  of  October,  after  tossing  about  for  nearly  a  month  in  the 
German  ocean  and  the  North  Atlantic,  they  appeared  off  the  coast 
of  Donegal,  and  stood  in  for  Lough  Swilly.  But  another  fleet 
also  was  on  the  horizon.  Admiral  Sir  John  Borlase  Warren, 
with  an  equal  number  of  ships,  but  a  much  heavier  armament, 
had  been  cruising  on  the  track  of  the  French  during  the  whole 
time  they  were  at  sea.  After  many  disappointments  the  flag-ship 
and  three  of  the  frigates  were  at  last  within  range  and  the  action 
began.  Six  hours  fighting  laid  the  Hoche  a  helpless  log  upon  the 
water ;  nothing  was  left  her  but  surrender ;  two  of  the  frigates 
shared  the  same  fate  on  the  same  day  ;  another  was  captured  on 
the  14th,  and  yet  another  on  the  17th.  The  remainder  of  the 
fleet  escaped  back  to  Franca 

The  French  officers  landed  in  Donegal  were  received  with  cour- 
tesy by  the  neighboring  gentry,  among  whom  was  the  Earl  of 
Cavan,  who  entertained  them  at  dinner.  Here  it  was  that  Sir 
George  Hill,  son-in-law  ta  Commissioner  Beresford,  an  old  college 
friend  of  Tone's,  identified  the  founder  of  the  United  Irishmen  under 
the  uniform  of  a  French  Adjutant-general.  Stepping  up  to  hist  Id 
schoolmate  he  .addressed  him  by  name,  which  Tone  instantly  ac- 
knowledged, inquiring  politely  for  Lady  Hill,  and  other  memberi 
61* 


^26  POPULAB    H1STUKV    OF   IRELAND. 

of  Sir  George's  family.  He  was  instantly  arrested,  ironed,  and 
conveyed  to  Dublin  under  a  strong  guard.  On  the  10th  of  Nov- 
ember, he  was  tried  by  court-martial  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged : 
he  begged  only  for  a  soldier's  death — "  to  be  shot  by  a  platoon 
of  grenadiers."  This  favor  was  denied  him,  and  the  next  morning 
he  attempted  to  commit  suicide.  The  attempt  did  not  immedi- 
ately succeed ;  but  one  week  later — on  the  19th  of  November — he 
died  from  the  results  of  his  self  inflicted  wound,  with  a  compli- 
ment to  the  attendant  physician  upon  his  lips.  Truth  compels 
us  to  say  he  died  the  death  of  a  Pagan ;  but  it  was  a  Pagan  of 
the  noblest  and  freest  type  of  Grecian  and  Roman  times.  Had  it 
occurred  in  ancient  days,  beyond  the  Christian  era,  it  would  have 
been  a  death  every  way  admirable ;  as  it  was,  that  fatal  final  act 
must  always  stand  between  "Wolfe  Tone  and  the  Christian  people 
for  whom  he  suffered,  sternly  forbidding  them  to  invoke  him  in 
their  prayers,  or  to  uphold  him  as  an  example  to  the  young  men 
of  their  country.  So  closed  the  memorable  year  1798,  on  the 
baffled  and  dispersed  United  Irishmen.  Of  the  chiefs  imprisoned 
in  March  and  May,  Lord  Edward  had  died  of  his  wounds  and 
vexation ;  Oliver  Bond  of  apoplexy ;  the  brothers  Sheares,  Fa- 
ther Quiijley,  and  William  Michael  Byrne  on  the  gibbet.  In 
July,  on  Samuel  Nelson's  motion,  the  remaining  prisoners  in  New- 
gate, Bridewell,  and  Kilmainham,  agreed,  in  order  to  stop  the  effu- 
sion of  blood,  to  expatriate  themselves  to  any  country,  not  at  war 
with  England,  and  to  reveal  the  general  secrets  of  their  system, 
without  inculpating  individuals.  These  terms  were  accepted,  aa 
the  Castle  party  needed  their  evidence  to  enable  them  to  promote 
the  cherished  scheme  of  legislative  Union.  But  that  evijence 
delivered  before  the  Committees  of  Parliament  by  Emmett,  Mac- 
Nevin,  and  O'Connor,  did  not  altogether  serve  the  purposes  of 
government.  The  patrirtic  prisoners  made  it  at  once  a  protcrt 
against,  and  an  exposition  of,  the  despotic  policy  under  which 
their  country  had  been  goaded  into  rebellion.  For  their  firmness 
they  were  punished  by  three  years  confinement  in  Fort  George, 
in  the  Scottish  Highlands,  where,  however,  a  gallant  old  soldier, 
Colonel  Stuart,  endeavored  to  soften  the  hard  realities  of  a  prison 
by  all  the  kind  attentions  his  instructions  permitted  him  to  show 
these  unfortunate  gentlemen.  At  the  peace  of  Aniens,  (1802), 


FOPULAB    HIS10FY    OF   IRELAND. 

they  were  at  'ast  allowed  the  melancholy  privilege  of  expatri- 
ation. Russell  and  Dowdall  were  permitted  to  return  to  Ireland, 
where  they  shared  the  fate  of  Robert  Emmett  in  1803  ;  O'Connor, 
Corbet,  Allen,  Ware,  and  others  cast  their  lot  in  France,  where 
they  all  rose  to  distinction ;  Emmett,  MacNevin,  Sampson,  atd 
the  family  of  Tone  were  reunited  in  New  York,  where  the  many 
changes  and  distractions  of  a  great  metropolitan  community  have 
not  even  yet  obliterated  the  memories  of  their  virtues,  their  tal- 
ents, and  their  accomplishments. 

It  is  impossible  to  dismiss  this  celebrated  group  of  men  whose 
principles  and  conduct  so  greatly  influenced  their  country's  des- 
tiny, without  bearing  explicit  testimony  to  their  heroic  qualities 
as  a  class.  If  ever  a  body  of  public  men  deserved  the  character 
of  a  brotherhood  of  heroes,  so  far  as  disinterestedness,  courage, 
self  denial,  truthfulness  and  glowing  love  of  country  constitute 
heroism,  these  men  deserved  that  character.  The  wisdom  of 
their  conduct,  and  the  intrinsic  merit  of  their  plans,  are  other 
questions.  As  between  their  political  system  and  that  of  Burke, 
Grattan  and  O'Connell,  there  always  will  be,  probably,  among 
their  countrymen,  very  decided  differences  of  opinion.  That  ia 
but  natural :  but  as  to  the  personal  and  political  virtues  of  the 
United  Iri&hmen  there  can  be  no  difference ;  the  world  baa  nevei 
seen  a  more  sincere  or  more  self  sacrificing  generation. 


CHAPTER  XVni. 

ABHnnSTKATION    Of   JX)RD    CORNWALUS. BEFORE    THE    UNIOX. 

"  NOTHING  strengthens  a  dynasty,"  said  the  first  Napoleon, 
"  more  than  an  unsuccessful  rebellion."  The  partial  uprising  of 
the  Irish  people  in  1*798  was  a  rebellion  of  this  class,  and  the  us« 
of  such  a  failure  to  an  able  and  unscrupHlous  administration,  wae 
Illustrated  in  the  extinction  of  the  ancient  legislature  of  the  king- 
dom, before  the  recurrence  of  the  third  anniversary  of  the  in- 
•urrection. 

This  project,  the  favorite  and  long-cherished  design  of  Mr.  Pitt, 


5" 2  8  POPULAR    HISTORY    0V   IRBLlVD. 

was  cordially  approved  by  his  principal  colleagues,  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  Lord  Grenville,  and  Mr.  Dundas;  indeed  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  it  was  not  as  much  Lord  Grenville's  de- 
sign as  Pitt's,  and  as  much  George  the  Third's  personal  project 
as  that  of  any  of  his  ministers.  The  old  king's  Irish  policy  was 
always  of  the  most  narrow  and  illiberal  description.  In  his 
memorandum  on  the  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  he  explains  his 
views  with  the  business-like  brevity  which  characterized  all  his 
communications  with  his  ministers  while  he  retained  possession 
of  his  faculties ;  he  was  totally  opposed  to  Lord  Fitzwilliain'i 
emancipation  policy,  which  he  thought  adopted  "  in  implicit 
obedience  to  the  heated  imagination  of  Mr.  Burke."  To  Lord 
Camden  his  instructions  were,  "  to  support  the  old  English  inter- 
est as  well  as  the  Protestant  religion,"  and  to  Lord  Cornwallis, 
that  no  further  '•  indulgence  could  be  granted  to  Catholics,"  but 
that  he  should  steadily  pursue  the  object  of  effecting  the  union 
of  Ireland  and  England. 

The  new  viceroy  entered  heartily  into  the  views  of  his  sover- 
eign. Though  unwilling  to  exchange  his  English  position  as  a 
Cabinet  Minister  and  Master-General  of  Ordnance  for  the  troubled 
life  of  a  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  he  at  length  allowed  him- 
self to  be  persuaded  into  the  acceptance  of  that  office,  with  a  view 
mainly  to  carrying  the  Union.  He  was  ambitious  to  connect  his 
name  with  that  great  imperial  measure,  so  often  projected,  but  never 
formally  proposed.  If  he  could  only  succeed  in  incorporating 
the  Irish  with  the  British  legislature,  he  declared  he  would  feel 
satisfied  to  retire  from  all  other  public  employments;  that  he 
would  look  on  his  day  as  finished,  and  his  evening  of  ease  and 
dignity  fully  earned.  He  was  not  wholly  unacquainted  with  the 
kingdom  against  which  he  cherished  these  ulterior  views;  for  he 
had  been,  nearly  thirty  years  before,  when  he  fell  under  the  lash 
of  Jnnivs,  one  of  the  Vice-Treasurers  of  Ireland.  For  the  rest  he 
» a*  &  man  of  great  information,  tact,  and  firmness;  indefatigable 
int-isineas;  tolerant  by  temperament  and  conviction;  but  both 
as  a  general  and  a  politician  it  was  hia  lot  to  be  identified  in 
India  arid  in  Ireland  with  successes  which  might  better  have 
been  failures,  and  in  America,  with  failures  which  were  muck 
more  beneficial  to  mankind  than  his  successes. 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRKLAKD.  Y29 

In  his  new  sphere  of  action  his  two  principal  agents  wer« 
Lord  Clarn  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  both  Irishmen ;  the  Chancellor, 
the  son  of  what  in  that  country  is  called  "  a  spoiled  priest,"  and 
the  Secretary,  the  son  of  .an  ex-volunteer  and  member  of  Flood's 
Reform  Convention.  It  is  not  possible  to  regard  the  conduct  of 
these  high  officials  in  undermining  and  destroying  the  ancient 
national  legislature  of  their  own  country,  in  the  same  light  as 
that  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  or  Mr.  Pitt,  or  Lord  Grenville.  It  was 
but  natural,  that  as  Englishmen,  these  ministers  should  consider 
the  empire  in  the  first  pla<"> ;  that  they  should  desire  to  centralize 
all  the  resources  and  all  the  authority  of  both  Islands  in  London ; 
that  to  them  the  existence  of  an  independent  Parliament  at  Dub- 
lin, with  its  ample  control  over  the  courts,  the  revenues,  the  de- 
fences, and  the  trade  of  that  kingdom,  should  appear  an  obstacle 
and  a  hindrance  to  the  unity  of  the  imperial  system.  From  their 
point  of  view  they  were  quite  right,  and  had  they  pursued  their 
end,  complete  centralization,  by  honorable  means,  no  stigma 
could  attach  to  them  even  in  the  eyes  of  Irishmen;  but  with 
Lords  Clare  and  Castlereagh  the  case  was  wholly  different.  Born 
in  the  land,  deriving  income  as  well  as  existence  from  the  soil, 
elected  to  its  parliament  by  the  confidence  of  their  countrymen, 
attaining  to  posts  of  honor  in  consequence  of  such  election,  that 
they  should  voluntarily  offer  their  services  to  establish  an  alien 
and  a  hostile  policy  on  the  rnins  of  their  own  national  constitu- 
tion, which,  with  all  its  defects,  was  national,  and  was  corrigible ; 
this  betrayal  of  their  own,  at  the  dictate  of  another  State,  will 
always  place  the  names  of  Clare  and  Castlereagh  on  the  detested 
list  of  public  traitors.  Yet  though  in  such  treason  united  and 
identified,  ro  two  men  could  be  more  unlike  in  all  other  respects. 
Lord  Clare  was  fiery,  dogmatic,  and  uncompromising  to  the  last 
degree ;  while  Lord  Castlereagh  was  stealthy,  imperturbable,  in- 
sidious, bland,  and  adroit.  The  Chancellor  endeavored  to  carry 
everything  with  a  high  hand,  with  a  bold,  defiant,  confident 
swagger;  the  Secretary,  on  the  contrary,  trusted  to  management, 
expediency,  and  silent  tenacity  of  purpose.  The  one  had  faith  in 
violence,  the  other  in  corruption ;  they  were  no  inapt  personifi- 
cations of  the  two  chief  agencies  by  which  the  union  was  effected 

-Force  and  Fraud. 


}30         *OFULAB  JUST  OKI  07  1KBLAKD. 

The  Irish  Parliament  which  had  been  of  necessity  adjourned 
daring  the  greater  part  of  the  time  the  insurrection  lasted, 
assembled  within  a  week  of  Lord  Cornwallis'  arrival.  BotU 
Houses  voted  highly  loyal  addresses  to  the  king  and  lord-lieu- 
tenant, the  latter  seconded  in  the  Commons  by  Charles  Kendal 
Bushe,  the  college  companion  of  Wolfe  Tone  I  A  vote  of  £100,000 
to  indemnify  those  who  had  suffered  from  the  rebels — subsequently 
increased  to  above  £1,000,000 — was  passed  una  voce  ;  another 
placing  on  the  Irish  establishment  certain  English  militia  regi- 
ments passed  with  equal  promptitude.  In  July,  five  consecutive 
acts — a  complete  code  of  penalties  and  proscription — were  intro- 
duced, and  after  various  debates  and  delays,  received  the  royal 
sanction  on  the  6th  of  October,  the  last  day  of  the  session  of 
1798.  These  acts  were :  1.  The  Amnesty  Act,  the  exceptions  to 
which  were  so  numerous  "  that  few  of  those  who  took  any  active 
part  in  the  rebellion,"  were,  according  to  the  Cornwallis'  corres- 
pondence, "benefited  by  it."  2.  An  Act  of  Indemnity, by  which 
all  magistrates  who  had  "  exercised  a  vigor  beyond  the  law " 
against  the  rebels,  were  protected  from  the  legal  consequence?  of 
nidi  acts.  3.  An  Act  for  attainting  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
Mr.  Harvey  and  Mr.  Grogan,  against  which  Curran,  taking  "  his 
instructions  from  the  grave,"  pleaded  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  pleaded  in  vain.  (This  act  was  finally  reversed  by  the 
Imperial  Parliament  in  1819.)  4.  An  act  forbidding  communi- 
cation between  persons  in  Ireland  and  those  enumerated  in  the 
Banishment  Act,  and  making  the  return  to  Ireland  after  sentence 
of  Banishment  by  a  court-mai  tial  a  transportable  felony.  5.  An 
ftct  to  compel  fifty -one  persons  therein  named  to  surrender  before 
1st  of  December,  1798,  under  pain  of  high  treason.  Among  the 
fifty-one  were  the  principal  refugees  at  Paris  and  Hamburg: 
Tone,  Lewines,  Tandy,  Deane  Swift,  Major  Plunkett,  Anthony 
McCunn,  Harvey  Morrcs,  etc.  On  the  same  day  in  which  the 
session  terminated,  and  the  royal  sanction  was  given  to  these 
acts,  the  name  of  Henry  Grattan  was,  a  significant  coincidence, 
formally  struck,  by  the  king's  commands,  from  the  roll  of  the 
Irish  Privy  Council  1 

This  legislation  of  the  session  of  1798,  was  fatal  to  the  Irish 
Parliament.  The  partisans  of  the  Union,  who  had  used  the  re- 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  T3I 

Oelliou  to  discredit  the  constitution,  now  used  the  Parliament  t« 
discredit  itself.  Under  the  influence  of  a  fierce  reactionary 
spirit,  when  all  merciful  and  moderate  councils  were  denounced 
as  treasonable,  it  was  not  difficult  to  procure  the  passage  of 
sweeping  measures  of  proscription.  But  with  their  passage 
vanished  the  former  popularity  of  the  domestic  legislature.  And 
what  followed  ?  The  constitution  of  '82  could  only  be  upheld  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people ;  and,  with  all  its  defects,  it  had  been 
popular  before  the  sudden  spread  of  French  revolutionary 
notions  distracted  aud  dissipated  the  public  opinion  which  had 
grown  up  within  the  era  of  independence.  To  make  the  once 
cherished  authority,  which  liberated  trade  in  "J  9,  and  half  eman- 
cipated the  Catholics  in  '93,  the  last  executioner  of  the  vengeance 
of  the  Castle  against  the  people,  was  to  place  a  gulf  between  it 
and  the  affections  of  that  people  in  the  day  of  trial.  To  make 
the  anti-unionists  in  Parliament,  such  as  the  speaker,  Sir  Law- 
rence Parsons,  Plunkett,  Ponsonby  and  Bushe,  personally  re- 
sponsible for  this  vindictive  code,  was  to  disarm  them  of  the 
power,  aad  almost  of  the  right,  to  call  on  the  people  whom  they 
turned  over,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  the  mercy  of  the  minister 
in  '98,  to  aid  them  against  the  machinations  of  that  same  min- 
ister in  '99.  The  last  months  of  the  year  were  marked  besides 
by  events  already  referred  to,  and  by  negotiations  incessantly 
carried  on,  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  in  favor  of  the  Union. 
Members  of  both  H»uses  were  personally  courted  and  canvassed 
by  the  prime  minister,  the  secretaries  of  state,  the  viceroy  and 
the  Irish  secretary.  Titles,  pensions  and  offices  were  freely 
promised.  Vast  sums  of  secret  service  money,  afterwards  added 
as  a  charge  to  the  public  debt  of  Ireland,  were  remitted  from 
Whitehall.  An  army  of  pamphleteers  marshalled  by  under- 
secretary Cooke,  and  confidentially  directed  by  the  able  but 
ami  national  Bishop  of  Heath,  (Dr.  0  Beirne,)  and  by  Lord 
Castlereagh  personally,  plied  tl  .eir  pens  in  favor  of  "  the  con- 
solidation of  the  empire."  The  lord  chancellor,  the  chief  secre- 
tary  and  Mr.  Beresford,  made  journeys  to  England,  to  assist  th« 
prime  minister  with  their  local  information,  and  to  receive  his 
imperial  confidence  in  return.  The  Orangemen  were  neutralized 
by  securing  a  majority  of  their  leaders ;  the  Catholics,  by  th« 


32  POPULAR   HISTORY    OF    HBL1ND. 

establishment  of  familiar  communication  with  the  bishops.  Th* 
Ticeroy  complimented  Dr.  Troy  at  Dublin;  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land  lavished  personal  attentions  on  Dr.  Moylan,  in  England. 
The  Protestant  clergy  were  satisfied  with  the  assurance  that  the 
maintenance  of  their  establishment  would  be  made  a  fundamental 
article  of  the  Union,  while  the  Catholic  bishops  were  given  to 
understand  that  complete  Emancipation  would  be  one  of  the  first 
measures  submitted  to  the  Imperial  Parliament  The  oligarchy 
were  to  be  indemnified  for  their  boroughs,  while  the  advocates  of 
reform  were  shown  how  hopeless  it  was  to  expect  a  House  consti- 
tuted of  their  nominees,  ever  to  enlarge  or  amend  its  own  exclu- 
sive constitution.  Thus  for  every  description  of  people  a  particular 
Bet  of  appeals  and  arguments  was  found,  and  for  those  who  discard* 
ed  the  affectation  of  reasoning  on  the  surrender  of  their  national 
existence,  there  wore  the  more  convincing  arguments  of  titles,  em- 
-ployments,  and  direct  pecuniary  purchase.  At  the  close  of  the 
year  of  the  rebellion,  Lord  Cornwallis  was  able  to  report  to  Mr. 
Pitt  that  the  prospects  of  carrying  the  measure  were  better  than 
could  have  been  expected,  and  on  this  report  he  was  authorized 
to  open  the  matter  formally  to  Parliament  in  his  speech  at  the 
opening  of  the  following  session. 

On  the  2'2d  of  January,  1799,  the  Irish  legislature  met  under 
circumstances  of  great  interest  and  excitement  The  city  of 
Dublin,  always  keenly  alive  to  its  metropolitan  interests,  sent  it* 
eager  thousands  by  every  avenue,  towards  College  Green.  The 
viceroy  went  down  to  the  Houses,  with  a  more  than  ordinary 
guard,  and  being  seated  on  the  throne  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the 
CoiHiuorvs  were  summoned  to  the  bar.  The  House  was  considered 
a  full  one,  217  members  being  present  The  viceregal  speech 
congratulated  both  Itotwes  on  the  suppression  of  the  late  rebel- 
lion, on  the  defeat  of  Bompart's  squadron,  and  the  recent  French 
Yictorie.s  af  Lord  Nelson;  then  came,  amid  profound  expectation, 
this  concluding  sentence: — "The  unremitting  industry,"  said  the 
vicero1'.  "  with  which  our  enemies  persevere  in  their  avowed  de- 
sign of  endeav  oring  to  effect  a  separation  of  this  kingdom  from 
Great  Britain,  must  have  engaged  your  attention,  and  his  majesty 
commands  me  to  express  htb  anxious  hope  that  thin  consideration, 
joined  to  the  sentiment  of  mutual  affuotion  and  common  intere*^ 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  733 

to»y  dispose  the  parliaments  in  both  kingdoms  to  provide  the 
most  effectual  means  of  maintaining  and  improving  a  connection 
essential  to  their  common  security,  and  of  consolidating,  as  far  a« 
possible,  into  one  firm  and  lasting  fabric,  the  strength,  the  power 
and  the  resources  of  the  British  empirfc."  On  the  paragraph  of 
the  address,  reechoing  this  sentiment,  which  was  carried  by  a 
large  majority  in  the  Lords,  a  debate  ensued  in  the  Commons 
which  lasted  till  one  o'clock  of  the  following  day,  above  twenty 
consecutive  hours.  Against  the  suggestion  of  a  Union  spoke 
Ponsonby,  Parsons,  Fitzgerald,  Barrington,  Plunkett,  Lee,  O'Don- 
nell  and  Bushe ;  in  its  favor,  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Knight  of 
Kerry,  Corry,  Fox,  Osborne,  Duigenan,  and  some  other  members 
little  known.  The  galleries  and  lobbies  were  crowded  all  night 
by  the  first  people  of  the  city,  of  both  sexes,  and  when  the 
division  was  being  taken,  the  most  intense  anxiety  was  mani- 
fested, within  doors  and  without.  At  length  the  tellers  made 
their  report  to  the  speaker,  himself  an  ardent  anti-Unionist,  and 
it  was  announced  that  the  numbers  were — "for  the  address  105, 
for  the  amendment  106,"  so  the  paragraph  in  favor  of  "  consoli- 
dating the  empire  "  was  lost  by  one  vote  1  Tne  remainder  of  the 
address  tainted  with  the  association  of  the  expunged  paragraph, 
was  barely  carried  by  10V  to  105.  Mr.  Ponsonby  had  attempted 
to  follow  his  victory  by  a  solemn  pledge  binding  the  majority 
never  again  to  entertain  the  question,  but  to  this  several  members 
objected  and  the  motion  was  withdrawn.  The  ministry  found 
some  consolation  in  this  withdrawal,  which  they  characterized  aa 
"  a  retreat  after  a  victory,"  but  to  tbe  public  at  large,  unused  to 
place  much  stress  on  the  minor  tactics  of  debate,  nothing  appeared 
but  the  broad,  general  fact,  that  the  first  overture  for  a  Union  had 
been  rejected.  It  was  a  day  of  immense  rejoicing  in  Dublin  ;  the 
leading  anti  Unionists  were  escorted  in  triumph  to  their  homes, 
while  the  Unionists  were  protected  by  strong  military  esooi'ts  from 
the  popular  indignation.  At  night  the  city  was  illuminated,  and 
the  patrols  were  doubled  as  a  protection  to  the  obnoxious  minority. 
Mr.  Ponsonby's  amendment,  affirmed  by  the  House  of  Commons, 
was  in  these  words : — "  That  the  House  would  be  ready  to  enter 
Into  any  measure  short  of  surrendering  their  free,  resident  and 
independent  legislature  as  established  in  1 782."  This  was  thq 


734  POPULAR  insroitr  Or 

iMmatun  ji  the  great  party  which  rallied  in  January,  1799,  to 
the  defence  of  the  established  constitution  of  their  country.  Th« 
arguments  with  which  they  sustained  their  position  were  few, 
bold,  and  intelligible  to  every  capacity.  There  was  the  argument 
from  Ireland's  geographical  situation,  and  the  policy  incident  to 
it;  the  historical  argument;  the  argument  for  a  resident  gentry 
occupied  and  retained  in  the  country  by  their  public  duties-;  the 
commercial  argument;  the  revenue  argument;  but  above  all,  the 
argument  of  the  incompetency  of  Parliament  to  put  an  end  to  ita 
own  existence.  "  Yourselves,"  exclaimed  the  eloquent  Plunkett, 
"you  may  extinguish,  but  Parliament  you  cannot  extinguish.  It 
is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  the  people — it  is  enshrined  in  the 
sanctuary  of  the  constitution — it  is  as  immortal  as  the  island  that 
protects  it.  As  well  might  the  frantic  suicide  imagine  that  the 
act  which  destroys  his  miserable  body  should  also  extinguish  his 
eternal  soul.  Again,  therefore,  I  warn  you.  Do  not  dare  to  lay 
your  hands  on  the  Constitution — it  is  above  your  powers  I  * 

These  arguments  were  combatted  on  the  grounds  that  the  isl- 
ands were  already  united  under  one  crown — that  that  species  of 
union  was  uncertain  and  precarious — that  the  Irish  Parliament 
was  never  in  reality  a  national  legislature ;  that  it  existed  only 
as  an  instrument  of  class  legislation ;  that  the  Union  would  bene- 
fit Ireland  materially  as  it  had  benefited  Scotland;  that  she 
would  come  in  for  a  full  share  of  imperial  honors,  expenditure 
and  trade ;  that  such  a  Union  would  discourage  all  future  hostile 
attempts  by  France  or  any  other  foreign  power  against  the  con- 
nection, and  other  similar  arguments.  But  the  division  which 
followed  the  first  introduction  of  the  subject  showed  clearly  to 
the  Unionists  that  they  could  not  hope  to  succeed  with  the  House 
of  Commons  as  then  constituted ;  that  more  time  and  more  prepa- 
ration  were  necessary.  A  ccordingly,  Lord  Castlereagh  was  autho- 
rized in  March,  to  state  formally  in  his  place,  that  it  was  rot  the 
intention  of  the  government  to  bring  up  the  question  again  dur- 
ing that  session ;  an  announcement  which  was  hailed  with  a  new 
outburst  of  rejoicing  in  the  city. 

But  thos)  who  imagined  the  measure  was  abandoned  were 
•adly  deceived.  Steps  were  immediately  taken  by  the  Castle  to 
deplete  the  House  of  its  majority,  and  to  supply  their  places  bf- 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  735 

fore  another  session  with  forty  or  fifty  new  members,  who  would 
be  entirely  at  the  beck  of  the  chief  secretary.  With  this  view, 
thirty-two  new  county  judgeships  were  created ;  a  great  number 
of  additional  inspectorships  and  commissioners  were  also  placed 
at  the  Minister's  disposal ;  thirteen  members  had  peerages  for 
themselves  or  for  their  wi/cs,  with  remainder  to  their  cluldren, 
and  nineteen  others  were  presented  to  various  lucrative  offices. 
The  "  Escheatopship  of  Munstcr  " — a  sort  of  Chiltern  Hundreds 
office — was  accepted  by  those  who  agreed  to  withdraw  from  op- 
position, for  such  considerations,  but  who  could  not  be  got  ta 
reverse  their  votes.  By  these  means,  and  a  lavish  expenditure 
of  secret  service  money,  it  was  hoped  that  Mr.  Pitt's  stipulated 
majority  of  "  not  less  than  fifty"  could  be  secured  during  the  year. 
The  other  events  of  the  session  of  '99,  though  interesting  in 
themselves,  are  of  little  importance  compared  to  the  union  de- 
bates. In  the  English  Parliament,  which  met  on  the  same  day 
as  the  Irish,  a  paragraph  identical  with  that  employed  by  Lord 
Cornwallis  in  introducing  the  subject  of  the  Union,  was  inserted 
in  the  king's  speech.  To  this  paragraph,  repeated  in  the  ad- 
dress, an  amendment  was  moved  by  the  celebrated  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan,  and  resisted  with  an  eloquence  scarcely  in- 
ferior to  his  own,  by  his  former  protege  and  countryman,  George 
Canning.  Canning,  like  Sheridan,  had  sprung  from  a  line  of 
Irish  literateurs  and  actors ;  he  had  much  of  the  wit  and  genius 
of  his  illustrious  friend,  with  more  worldly  wisdom,  and  a  higher 
sentiment  of  personal  pride.  In  very  early  life,  distinguished  by 
great  oratorical  talents,  he  had  deliberately  attached  himself  tr 
Mr.  Pitt,  while  Sheridan  remained  steadfast  to  the  last,  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Whig  or  liberal  party.  For  the  land  of  their  ances- 
tors both  had,  at  bottom,  very  warm,  good  wishes ;  but  Canning 
looked  down  on  her  politics  from  the  heights  of  empire,  while 
Sheridan  felt  for  her  honor  and  her  interests  with  the  affection  of 
an  expatriated  son.  We  can  well  credk  his  statement  to  Grate 
tan,  years  afterwards,  when  referring  to  his  persistent  opposition 
to  the  Union,  he  said,  he  would  "  have  waded  in  blood  to  hia 
knees,"  to  preserve  the  Constitution  of  Ireland.  In  taking  thia 
course  he  had  with  him  a  few  eminent  friends.  General  Fitz- 
patrick,  the  former  Irish  Secretary  Mr.  Tierney,  Mr.  Hobhouse, 


730  POPTLAB    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

Dr.  Lawrerce,  the  executor  of  Edmund  Burke,  and  Mr.  afterwards 
Earl  Grey.  Throughout  the  entire  discussion  these  just-minded 
Englishmen  stood  boldly  forward  for  the  rights  of  Ireland,  and 
this  highly  honorable  conduct  was  long  remembered  as  one  of 
I.-eland's  real  obligations  to  the  Whig  party. 

The  resolutions  intended  to  i^rve  as  "the  basis  of  union,"  were 
introduced  by  Mr.  Pitt,  on  the  21st  of  January,  and  after  anothet 
powerful  speech  in  opposition,  from  Mr.  Grey,  who  was  ably  sus- 
tained by  Mr.  Sheridan,  Dr.  Lawrence,  and  some  twenty  others, 
were  put  and  carried.  The  following  are  the  resolutions: 

1st.  "  In  order  to  promote  and  secure  the  essential  interests  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  to  consolidate  the  strength,  power, 
and  resources  of  the  British  empire,  it  will  be  advisable  to  con- 
cur in  such  measures  as  may  tend  to  unite  the  two  kingdoms  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  into  one  kingdom,  in  such  manner,  and 
on  such  terms  and  conditions  as  may  be  established  by  acts  of 
the  respective  parliaments  of  his  majesty's  said  kingdoms. 

2d.  "  It  would  be  fit  to  propose  as  the  first  article,  to  serve  as 
a  basis  of  the  said  ui.ion,  that  the  said  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  shall,  on  a  day  to  be  agreed  upon,  be  united  into  one 
kingdom,  by  the  name  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland. 

3d.  "  For  the  same  purpose  it  would  be  fit  to  propose,  that  the 
succession  to  the  monarchy  and  the  imperial  crown  of  the  said 
united  kingdom,  shall  continue  limited  and  settled,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  imperial  crown  of  the  said  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land now  stands  limited  and  settled,  according  to  the  existing 
law,  and  to  the  terms  of  the  union  between  England  and  Scotland. 

4th.  "For  the  same  purpose  it  would  be  fit  to  propose  that  the 
said  united  kingdom  be  represented  in  one  and  the  same  parlia- 
ment, to  be  styled  the  parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  great 
Britain  and  Iraland ;  and  that  such  a  number  of  lords,  spiritual 
and  temporal,  and  such  a  number  of  members  of  the  house  of 
commons,  as  shall  be  hereafter  agreed  upon  by  the  acts  of  the 
respective  parliaments  as  aforesaid,  shall  sit  and  vote  in  the  said 
pailiament  on  tt  3  part  of  Ireland,  and  shall  be  summoned,  chosen, 
•nd  returned,  in  such  manner  as  shall  be  fixed  by  an  act  of  the 
parliament  ot  Ireland  previous  to  the  said  union ;  and  that  every 


POPULAR    HISTORY    0*    IRELAHD.  8 

«nsrrber  hereafter  to  sit  and  vote  in  the  said  parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom  sh;>ll,  until  the  said  parliament  shall  otherwise 
provide,  take,  and  subscribe  the  said  oaths,  and  make  the  same 
declarations  as  are  required  by  law  to  be  taken,  subscribed,  and 
made  by  the  members  of  the  parliaments  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland. 

6th.  "  For  the  same  purpose  it  would  be  fit  to  propose,  that 
the  churches  of  England  and  Ireland,  and  the  doctrine,  worship, 
discipline,  and  government  thereof,  shall  be  preserved  as  now  by 
law  established. 

6tK  "  For  the  same  purpose  it  would  be  fit  to  propose,  that  hia 
majesty's  subjects  in  Ireland  shall  at  all  times  be  entitled  to  the 
same  privileges,  and  be  on  the  same  footing  in  respect  of  trade 
and  navigation  in  all  ports  and  places  belonging  to  Great  Britain, 
and  in  all  cases  with  respect  to  which  treaties  shall  be  made  by 
his  majesty,  his  heirs,  or  successors,  with  any  foreign  power,  as 
his  majesty's  subjects  in  Great  Britain ;  that  no  duty  shall  be  inv 
posed  on  the  import  or  export  between  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, of  any  articles  now  duty  free,  and  that  on  other  articles 
there  shall  be  established,  for  a  time  to  be  limited,  such  a  moderate 
rate  of  equal  duties  as  shall,  previous  to  the  union,  be  agreed 
upon  and  approved  by  the  respective  parliaments,  subject,  after 
'.he  expiration  of  such  limited  time,  to  be  diminished  equally 
with  respect  to  both  kingdoms,  but  in  no  caso  to  be  increased ; 
that  all  articles,  which  may  at  any  time  hereafter  be  imported 
into  Great  Britain  from  foreign  parts  shall  be  importable  through 
either  kingdom  into  the  other,  subject  to  the  like  duties  and  regu- 
lations, as  if  the  same  were  imported  directly  from  foreign  parts : 
that  where  any  articles,  the  growth,  produce,  or  manufacture  of 
either  kingdom,  are  subject  to  an  internal  duty  in  one  kingdom, 
such  counter-vailing  duties  (over  and  above  any  duties  on  import 
to  be  fixed  as  aforesaid)  shall  be  imposed  as  shall  be  necessary 
to  prevent  any  inequality  in  that  respect ;  and  that  all  matters  of 
trade  and  commerce,  other  than  the  foregoing,  and  than  such 
others  as  may  before  the  union  be  specially  agreed  upon  for  the 
due  encouragement  of  the  agriculture  and  manufactures  of  the 
respective  kingdoms,  shall  remain  to  be  regulated  from  time  to 
time  by  the  united  parliament. 
62* 


^38  POPULAR    HISTORY    OP    IRELAND. 

7th.  "  For  the  like  purpose  it  would  be  fit  to  propose,  that  tht 
charge  arising  from  the  payment  of  the  interests  or  sinking  fund 
for  the  reduction  of  the  principal  of  the  debt  incurred  n  eithel 
kingdom  before  the  union,  shall  continue  to  be  separatel}  lefrayed 
by  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  respectively;  that,  for  a  number  of 
years  to  be  limited,  the  future  ordinary  exjienses  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  in  peace  or  war,  shall  be  defrayed  by  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  jointly,  according  to  such  proportions  as  shall  be  estab- 
lished by  the  respe:tive  parliaments  previous  to  the  union;  and 
that,  after  the  expiration  of  the  time  to  be  BO  limited,  the  pro- 
portion  shall  not  be  liable  to  be  varied,  except  according  to  such 
rates  and  principles  as  shall  be  in  like  manner  agreed  upon  pre- 
vious to  the  union. 

8th.  "  For  the  like  purpose,  that  all  laws  in  force  at  the  time 
of  the  union,  and  all  the  courts  of  civil  or  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion within  the  respective  kingdoms,  shall  remain  as  now  by  law 
established  within  the  same,  subject  only  to  such  alterations  or 
regulations  from  time  to  time  as  circumstances  may  appear  to  the 
parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  require." 

Mr.  Pitt,  on  the  passage  of  these  resolutions,  proposed  an  ad- 
dress, stating  that  the  commons  had  proceeded  with  the  utmost 
attention  to  the  consideration  of  the  important  objects  recom- 
mended in  the  royal  message,  that  they  entertained  a  firm  per- 
suasion of  the  probable  benefits  of  a  complete  and  entire  union 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  founded  on  equal  and  liberal 
principles ;  that  they  were  therefore  induced  to  lay  before  his 
majesty  such  propositions  as  appeared  to  them  to  be  best  cal- 
culated to  form  the  basis  of  such  a  settlement,  leaving  it  to  his 
wisdom  in  due  time  and  in  proper  manner,  to  communicate  thei. 
K>  the  lords  and  commons  of  Ireland,  with  whom  they  would  b« 
at  all  times  ready  to  concur  in  all  such  measures  as  might  be 
found  most  conducive  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  and 
•alntary  work. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  Lord  Grenville  introduced  the  same 
resolutions  in  the  Lords,  where  they  were  passed  after  a  E'irited 
opposition  speech  from  Lord  Holland,  and  the  basis,  so  far  ns  tha 
King,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  England  were  concerned,  was  laid. 
In  proroguing  the  Irish  houses  on  the  1st  of  June,  Loi  i  Corn- 


HI8TOKT    OF    IRELAND.  >t 

wallSfl  alluded  to  these  resolutions,  and  the  anxiety  cf  the  king,  aa 
the  common  father  of  his  people,  to  see  both  kingdoms  united  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  blessings  of  a  free  constitution. 

This  prorogation  was  originally  till  August,  but  in  August 
it  was  extended  till  January,  1800.  In  this  long  interval  of  eight 
months,  the  two  great  parties,  the  Unionists  and  anti-Unionists 
were  incessantly  employed,  through  the  press,  in  social  inter- 
course, in  the  grand  jury  room,  in  county  and  city  meetings,  by 
correspondence,  petitions,  addresses,  each  pushing  forxard  its 
own  views  with  all  the  zeal  and  warmth  of  men  who  felt  that  oiv 
one  side  they  were  laboring  for  the  country,  on  the  other  for  the 
empire.  Two  incidents  of  this  interval  were  deeply  felt  in  the 
patriot  ranks,  the  death  at  an  advanced  age  of  the  venerable 
Charlemont,  the  best  member  of  his  order  Ireland  had  ever 
known,  and  the  return  to  the  kingdom  and  to  public  life  of  Lord 
Charlemont's  early  friend  and  protege,  Henry  Grattan.  He  had 
spent  above  a  year  in  England,  chiefly  in  Wales  and  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  His  health  all  this  time  had  been  wretched;  his  spirits 
low  and  despondent,  and  serious  fears  were  at  some  moments 
entertained  for  his  life.  He  had  been  forbidden  to  read  or  write, 
or  to  hear  the  exciting  news  of  the  day.  Soothed  and  cheered 
by  that  admirable  won?  an,  whom  Providence  had  given  him,  he 
passed  the  crisis,  but  he  returned  to  breathe  his  native  air, 
greatly  enfeebled  in  body,  and  sorely  afflicted  in  mind.  The 
charge  of  theatrical  affectation  of  illness  has  been  brought  against 
Grattan  by  the  Unionists, — against  Grattan  who,  as  to  his  per- 
•onal  habits,  was  simplicity  itself!  It  is  a  charge  undeserving 
of  serious  contradiction. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IMH    8K80IOX    OF   THE    IRISH    PARLIAMENT. — THE     LEC-;8LATI7I     VX109 
OF    GREAT    BRITAIN    AND    IRELAND. 

WHEW  the  Irish  Parliament  met  for  the  last  time,  on  the  18th 
of  January,  1800,  the  position  of  the  Union  question  rtood  thiu; 


40  POPULAR    BISTORT    OV   IRELAND. 

27  new  Peers  had  been  added  to  the  House  of  Lords  where  tta 
Castle  might  therefore  reckon  with  safety  on  a  majority  of  thr«« 
vo  one.  Of  the  Lords  spiritual,  only  Dr.  Marlay  of  Waterford,  an  J 
Dr.  Dixon  of  Down  and  Connor,  had  the  courage  to  side  with  theii 
country  against  their  order.  In  the  Commons  there  was  an  infn- 
won  of  eome  60  new  borough  members,  many  of  them  general 
officers,  such  as  Needham,  and  Packenham,  all  of  them  nominees 
of  the  Castle,  except  Mr.  Saurin  returned  for  Blessington,  and 
Mr.  G rattan,  at  the  last  moment,  for  Wicklow.  The  great  con- 
stitutional body  of  the  bar  had,  at  a  general  meeting,  the  previous 
December,  declared  against  the  measure  by  162  to  33.  Another 
powerful  body,  the  bankers,  had  petitioned  against  It,  ir  the  inter- 
est of  the  public  credit.  The  Catholic  bishops  in  their  annual 
meeting  had  taken  up  a  position  of  neutrality  as  a  body,  but 
under  the  artful  management  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Archbishops 
of  Dublin  and  Tuam,  with  the  Bishop  of  Cork,  and  some  others, 
were  actively  employed  in  counteracting  anti-Union  movements 
among  the  people.  Although  the  vast  majority  of  that  people 
had  too  much  reason  to  be  disgusted  and  discontented  with  the 
legislation  of  the  previous  three  years,  above  700,000  of  them 
petitioned  against  the  measure,  while  all  the  signatures  which 
could  be  obtained  in  ite  favor,  by  the  use  of  every  means  at  the 
command  of  the  Castle,  did  not  much  exceed  7,000. 

The  Houses  were  opened  on  the  15th  of  January.  The  vice- 
roy not  going  down,  his  message  was  read  in  the  Lords,  by  th« 
Chancellor,  and  in  the  Commons,  by  the  Chief  Secretary.  It  did 
not  directly  refer  to  the  basis  laid  down  in  England,  nor  to  the 
subject  matter  itself ;  but  the  leaders  of  the  Castle  party  in  both 
houses,  took  care  to  supply  the  deficiency.  In  the  Lords,  proxies 
included,  Lord  Clare  bad  75  to  26,  for  his  Union  address ;  in  the 
Commons,  Lord  Castlercagh  congratulated  the  country  on  the 
improvement  which  had  taken  place  in  public  opinion,  since  the 
former  session.  He  briefly  sketched  his  plan  of  Union,  which, 
while  embracing  the  main  propositions  of  Mr.  Pitt,  secured  the 
Church  establishment,  bid  high  for  the  commercial  interests,  hinted 
darkly  of  emancipation  to  the  Catholics,  and  gave  the  proprietor* 
of  boroughs  to  understand  that  their  interest  5n  those  cvmvenJenl 
•onBtitueni'ies  would  be  capitaliaed,  and  ft  good  round  sum  giv«n 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  ^41 

to  buy  out  their  perpetual  patronage.  In  amendment  to  the  ad- 
dress, Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  moved,  seconded  by  Mr.  Savage  of 
Down,  that  the  House  would  maintain  intact  the  Constitution  of 
'82,  and  the  debate  proceeded  on  this  motion.  Ponsonby  replied 
to  Castlereagh  ;  Plunkett  and  Bushe  were  answered  by  the  future 
judges,  St.  George  Daly  and  Luke  Fox ;  Toler  contributed  his  farce, 
and  Dr.  Duigenan  his  fanaticism.  Through  the  long  hours  of 
the  winter's  night  the  eloquent  war  was  vigorously  maintained. 
One  who  was  himself  a  distinguished  actor  in  the  struggle,  (Sir 
Jonah  Barrington,)  has  thus  described  it :  "  Every  mind  "  he  says 
"  was  at  its  stretch,  every  talent  was  in  its  vigor  :  it  was  a  mo- 
mentous trial ;  and  never  was  so  general  and  so  deep  a  sensation 
felt  in  any  country.  Numerous  British  noblemen  and  commoner! 
were^  present  at  that  and  the  succeeding  debate,  and  they  expressed 
opinions  of  Irish  eloquence  which  they  had  never  before  con- 
ceived,  nor  ever  after  had  an  opportunity  of  appreciating.  Every 
man  on  that  night  seemed  to  be  inspired  by  the  subject.  Speeches 
more  replete  with  talent  and  energy,  on  both  sides,  never  were 
heard  in  the  Irish  Senate  ;  it  was  a  vital  subject.  The  sublime, 
the  eloquent,  the  figurative  orator,  the  plain,  the  connected,  the 
metaphysical  reasoner,  the  classical,  the  learned,  and  the  solemn 
declaimer,  in  a  succession  of  speeches  so  full  of  energy  and  en- 
thusiasm, so  interesting  in  their  nature,  so  important  in  their  con- 
sequence, created  a  variety  of  sensations  even  in  the  bosom  of  a 
stranger,  and  could  scarcely  fail  of  exciting  some  sympathy  with 
m  nation  which  was  doomed  to  close  for  ever  that  school  of  elo- 
quence which  had  so  long  given  character  and  celebrity  to  Irish 
talent." 

At  the  early  dawn,  a  special  messenger  from  Wicklow,  juct 
arrived  in  town,  roused  Henry  Grattan  from  his  bed.  He  had 
been  elected  the  previeus  night  for  the  borough  of  Wicklow, 
(which  cost  him  £2,400  sterling),  and  this  was  the  bearer  of  the 
returning  officer's  certificate.  His  friends,  weak  and  feeble  as  he 
was,  wished  him  to  go  down  to  the  House,  and  his  heroic  wife 
seconded  their  appeals.  It  was  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  of 
the  16th  when  he  reached  College  Green,  the  scene  of  his  first 
triumphs  twenty  years  before.  Mr.  Egan,  one  of  the  staunches! 
•nti-Unionists,  was  at,  the  moment,  on  some  rumor,  probably,  »f 


^42  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

his  approach,  apostrophising  warmly  tLe  father  of  the  Cons*itu 
tion  of  '82,  when  that  striking  apparition  appeared  at  the  bar. 
Worn  and  emaciated  beyond  description,  h3  appeared  leaning  on 
two  of  his  friends,  Arthur  Moore  and  W.  B.  Pousonby.  He  wore 
his  volunteer  uniform,  blue  with  red  facings,  and  advanced  to  the 
table,  where  he  removed  his  cocked  hat,  bowed  to  the  speaker, 
and  took  the  oaths.  After  Mr.  Egan  had  concluded,  he  begged 
pormission  from  his  seat  beside  Plunkett,  to  address  the  House 
sitting,  which  was  granted,  and  then  in  a  discourse  of  two  houra 
duration,  full  of  his  ancient  fire  and  vigor,  he  asserted  once  again, 
by  the  divine  right  of  intellect,  his  title  to  be  considered  the  first 
Commoner  of  Ireland.  Gifted  men  were  not  rare  in  that  assembly ; 
but  the  inspiration  of  the  heart,  the  uncontrollable  utterance  of 
a  supreme  spirit,  not  less  than  the  extraordinary  faculty  of  con- 
densation, in  which,  perhaps,  he  has  never  had  a  superior  in  our 
language,  gave  the  Grattan  of  1800  the  same  preeminence  among 
his  cotemporaries,  that  wae  conceded  to  the  Grattan  of  1782. 
After  eighteen  hours  discussion  the  division  was  taken,  when  the 
result  of  the  long  recess  was  clearly  seen ;  for  the  amendment 
there  appeared  96,  for  the  address  188  members.  The  Union  major- 
ity, therefore,  was  42.  It  was  apparent  from  that  moment  that 
the  representation  of  the  people  in  Parliament  had  been  effectu- 
ally corrupted  ;  that  that  assembly  was  no  longer  the  safeguard 
of  the  liberties  of  the  people.  Other  ministerial  majorities  con- 
firmed this  impression.  A  measure  to  enable  10,000  of  the  Irish 
militia  to  enter  the  regular  army,  and  to  substitute  English  militia 
in  their  stead,  followed  ;  an  inquiry  into  outrages  committed  by 
the  sheriff  and  military  in  King's  county,  was  voted  down ;  a 
similar  motion  somewhat  later,  in  relation  to  officials  in  Tipper- 
ary  met  the  same  fate.  On  the  6th  of  February,  a  formal  mes- 
sago  I'roposing  a  basis  of  Union  was  received  from  his  Excellency, 
ind  debated  for  twenty  consecutive  hours — from  4  o'clock  of  on« 
day,  tih  12  of  the  next  Grattan,  Plunkett,  Parnell,  Ponsonby, 
Saurin,  were,  as  always,  eloquent  and  able,  but  again  the  divisirn 
told  for  the  minister,  160  to  117 — majority  48.  On  the  17th  of 
February,  the  House  went  inU  committee  on  the  proposed  ai  t  idea 
of  Union,  and  the  Speaker  (John  Foster)  being  now  on  the  floor, 
ad'lrossed  the  House  with  great  ability  in  review  of  Mr.  Pitt'i 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELJLNl).  748 

recent  Union  speech,  which  he  designated  "  a  paltry  production." 
But  again,  a  majority  mustered  at  the  nod  of  the  minister  161  to 
140 — a  few  not  fully  committed  showing  some  last  faint  spark  of 
independence.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Corry,  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer,  member  for  Newry,  made  for  the  third  or 
fourth  time  that  session,  an  attack  on  Grattan  which  brought  out, 
on  the  instant,  that  famous  "  phillipic  against  Corry,"  unequalled 
hi  our  language,  for  its  well-snppressed  passion,  and  finely  con- 
densed denunciation.  A  duel  followed,  as  soon  as  there  was  suffi- 
cient light ;  the  Chanceilor  was  wounded,  after  which  the  Castle- 
reagh  tactics  of  "fighting  down  the  opposition,"  received  an 
immediate  and  lasting  check. 

Throughout  the  months  of  February  and  March,  with  an  occasional 
adjournment,  the  Constitutional  battle  was  fought,  on  every  point 
permitted  by  the  forms  of  the  House.  On  the  25th  of  March, 
the  Committee,  after  another  powerful  speech  from  the  Speaker, 
finally  reported  the  resolutions  which  were  passed  by  154  to  107 
— a  majority  of  47.  The  Houses  then  adjourned  for  six  weeks  to 
allow  time  for  corresponding  action  to  be  taken  in  England. 
There,  there  was  little  difficulty  in  carrying  the  measure.  In  the 
Upper  House,  Lords  Derby,  Holland,  and  King  only  opposed  it ; 
in  the  Lower,  Sheridan,  Tierney,  Grey,  and  Lawrence  mustered 
on  a  division,  30  votes  against  Pitt's  206.  On  the  21st  of  May, 
in  the  Irish  Commons,  Lord  Castlereagh  obtained  leave  to  bring 
in  the  Union  Bill  by  160  to  100 ;  on  the  7th  of  June  the  final 
passage  of  the  measure  was  effected.  That  closing  scene  has  been 
often  described,  but  never  so  graphically,  as  by  the  diamond  pen 
of  Jonah  Barrington. 

"  The  galleries  were  full,  but  the  change  was  lamentable.  They 
were  no  longer  crowded  with  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
witness  the  eloquence  and  to  animate  the  debates  of  that  devoted 
assembly.  A  monotonous  and  melancholy  murmur  ran  through 
the  benches ;  scarcely  a  word  was  exchanged  amongst  the  mem- 
bers ;  nobody  seemed  at  ease ;  no  cheerfulness  was  apparent ;  and 
the  ordinary  business,  for  a  short  time,  proceeded  in  the  usual 
manner . 

*  At  length,  the  expected  moment  arrived:  the  order  of  th« 
d»y  for  ,he  third  reading  of  the  bill  for  a  '  legislative  union  he- 


44  POPULAR  msroRr  OJP 

tween  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,'  was  moved  by  Lord  Castle 
reagli.  Uuyaried,  tauie,  cold-blooded,  the  words  seemed  frozen 
as  they  issued  from  his  lips ;  and,  as  if  a  simple  citizen  of  the 
world,  he  seemed  to  have  no  sensation  on  the  subject. 

"  At  that  moment  he  had  no  country,  no  God,  but  his  ambi 
tion.  He  made  his  motion,  and  resumed  his  seat,  with  the  utmost 
composure  aud  indifference. 

"  Confused  murmurs  again  ran  through  the  house.  It  was  visi- 
bly affected.  Every  character,  in  a  moment,  seemed  involun- 
tarily rushing  to  its  index — some  pale,  some  flushed,  some  agi- 
tated— there  were  few  countenances  to  which  the  heart  did  not 
despatch  some  messenger.  Several  members  withdrew  before 
the  question  could  be  repeated,  and  an  awful,  momentary  silence 
succeeded  their  departure.  The  speaker  rose  slowly  from  that 
chair  which  had  been  the  proud  source  of  his  honors  and  of  his 
high  character.  For  a  moment  he  resumed  his  seat,  but  the 
strength  of  his  mind  sustained  him  in  his  duty,  though  his  strug- 
gle was  apparent.  With  that  dignity  which  never  failed  to  sig- 
nalize his  official  actions,  he  held  up  the  bill  for  a  moment  in 
silence.  He  looked  steadily  around  him  on  the  last  agony  of  the 
expiring  parliament.  He  at  length  repeated,  in  an  emphatic 
tone,  '  As  many  as  are  of  opinion  that  THIS  BILL  do  pass,  say  ay.' 
The  affirmative  was  languid,  but  indisputable.  Another  momen- 
tary pause  ensued.  Again  his  lips  seemed  to  decline  their  office. 
At  length,  with  an  eye  averted  from  the  object  he  hated,  he  pro- 
claimed, with  a  subdued  voice,  '  The  AYES  have  it.'  The  fatal  sen- 
tence was  now  pronounced.  For  an  instant  he  stood  statue-like ; 
then  indignantly,  and  with  disgust,  flung  the  bill  upon  the  table, 
and  sank  into  his  chair  with  an  exhausted  spirit  An  independent 
country  was  thus  degraded  into  a  province.  Ireland,  as  a  nation, 
was  extinguished." 

The  ti nal  division  in  the  Commons  was  1 68  to  88,  nearly  60 
members  absenting  themselves,  and  in  the  Lords,  76  to  17.  In 
England  all  the  stages  were  passed  in  July,  and  on  the  2d  of 
August,  the  anniversary  of  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Bruns- 
wick, the  royal  assent  was  given  to  the  legislation,  which  dcolarcd 
tho  kingdom*  of  Or«»at  Britain  and  Ireland,  one  nnd  inseparable  J 

By  the  provisions  of  this  statute,  compact,  or  treaty ,  the  SOT 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  45 

ereignty  of  the  United  Kingdom  was  to  follow  the  order  of  the 
Act  of  Succession;  the  Irish  peerage  was  to  be  reduced  by  the 
filling  of  one  vacancy  for  every  three  de.aths,  to  the  number  of 
one  hundred';  from  among  these  twenty-eight  representative  peers 
were  to  be  elected  for  life,  and  four  spiritual  Icrds  to  sit  in  suc- 
cession. The  number  of  Irish  representatives  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament  was  fixed  at  one  hundred  (increased  to  one  hundred 
and  five) ;  the  churches  of  England  and  Ireland  were  united  like 
the  kingdoms,  and  declared  to  be  one  in  doctrine  and  discipline. 
The  debt  of  Ireland,  which  was  less  than  £4,000,000  in  1797,  in- 
creased  to  £14,000,000  in  '99,  and  had  risen  to  nearly  £17,000,000 
in  1801,  was  to  be  alone  chargeable  to  Ireland,  whose  propor- 
tionate share  of  general  taxation  was  then  estimated  at  2-17tha 
of  that  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  Courts  of  Law,  the  Privy 
Council,  and  the  Viceroyalty,  were  to  remain  at  Dublin,  the  ceno- 
taph and  the  shadows  of  departed  nationality. 

On  the  1st  day  of  January,  1801,  in  accordance  with  this  great 
Constitutional  change,  a  new  imperial  standard  was  run  up  on 
London  Tower,  Edinburgh  Castle,  and  Dublin  Castle.  It  was 
formed  of  the  three  crosses  of  St.  Patrick,  Saint  Andrew,  and 
Saint  George,  and  is  that  popularly  known  to  us  as  "  the  Union 
Jack."  The  jleur  de  lis  and  the  word  "  France,"  were  struck  from 
the  royal  title,  which  was  settled  by  proclamation  to  consist 
henceforth  of  the  words  Dei  Gratia,  Britanniarum  Rex,  Fidei 
Defensor. 

The  foul  means  by  which  this  counter  revolution  was  accom- 
plished  have,  perhaps,  been  already  sufficiently  indicated.  It 
may  be  necessary,  however,  in  order  to  account  for  the  continued 
hostility  of  the  Irish  people  to  the  measure,  after  more  than  sixty 
years'  experience  of  its  results,  to  recapitulate  them  very  briefly. 
Of  all  who  voted  for  the  Union,  in  both  houses,  it  was  said  that 
only  six  or  seven  were  known  to  have  done  so  on  conviction. 
Great  borough  proprietors,  like  Lord  Ely  and  Lord  Shannon, 
received  as  much  as  £45,000  sterling  in  "  compensation  "  for  their 
loss  of  patronage ;  while  proprietors  of  single  seats  received 
£15,000.  That  fhe  majority  was  avowedly  purchased,  in  both 
hoi]=*r>?.  's  no  longer  matter  <;f  inference,  nay,  tint  pome  of  them 
trere  purchased  twice  over  is  now  well  known.  Lord  Carysfort, 
63 


746      ropcLAK  ins i out  or  IRBLAND. 

an  active  partizan  of  the  measure,  writing  in  February,  1800,  U 
his  friend  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham,  frankly  says :  "  The  ma- 
jority, which  has  been  bought  at  an  enormous  price,  must  be 
b  night  over  again,  perhaps  more  than  once,  before  all  the  de- 
tails can  be  gone  through."  His  lordship  himself,  and  the  order 
to  which  he  belonged,  and  those  who  aspired  to  enter  it,  were,  it 
must  be  added,  among  the  most  insatiable  of  these  purchased 
supporters.  The  Dublin  Gazette  for  July,  1800,  announced  not 
less  than  sixteen  new  peerages,  and  the  same  publication  for  the 
last  week  of  the  year,  contained  a  fresh  list  of  twenty -six  others. 
Forty  two  creations  in  six  months  was  a  stretch  of  prerogative 
far  beyond  the  most  arbitrary  of  the  Stuarts  or  Tudors,  and 
forms  one,  not  of  the  least  unanswerable  evidences,  of  the  utterly 
corrupt  considerations  which  secured  the  support  of  the  Irish 
majority  in  both  houses. 

It  was  impossible  that  a  people  like  the  Irish,  disinterested  and 
unselfish  to  a  fault,  should  ever  come  to  respect  a  compact 
brought  about  by  such  means  and  influences  as  these.  Had, 
however,  the  Union,  rile  as  were  the  means  by  which  it  was 
accomplished,  proved  to  the  real  benefit  of  the  country — had 
equal  civil  and  religious  rights  been  freely  and  at  once  extended 
to  the  people  of  the  lesser  kingdom — there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  measure  would  have  become  popular  in  time,  and  the 
vices  of  the  old  system  be  better  remembered  than  its  benefits, 
real  or  imaginary.  But  the  Union  was  never  utilized  for  Ireland; 
it  proved  in  reality  what  Samuel  Johnson  had  predicted,  when 
spoken  of  in  his  day :  "  Do  not  unite  with  us,  sir,"  said  the  gruff 
old  moralist  to  an  Irish  acquaintance ;  "  it  would  be  the  union  of 
the  shark  with  his  prey ;  we  should  unite  with  you  only  to  des- 
troy you." 

In  glancing  backward  over  the  long  political  connexion  of  Ire- 
Vid  and  England  we  mark  four  great  epochs.  The  Anglo-Norman 
Livasion  in  1169;  the  statute  of  Kilkenny  decreeing  eternal 
wparation  between  the  races,  "the  English  palp"  and  -'the  Irish 
enemy,"  1367;  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  in  1541,  and  the  Legis- 
lative Union,  in  1801  One  more  cardinal  event  remains  to  b« 
recorded,  the  Emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  in  1829. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  Y47 


BOOK   XII. 

FROM  THE  UNION  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 
AND  IRELAND  TO  THE  EMANCIPATION 
OF  THE  CATHOLICS. 


CHAPTER  L 

ATTER    THE    UNION DEATH    OF    LORD    GtARE. ROBERT    £MMETT>» 

EMEUTE. 

THE  plan  of  this  brief  compendium  of  Irish  history  obliges 
us  to  sketch  for  some  years  farther  on,  the  political  and  religious 
annals  of  the  Irish  people.  Having  described  in  what  manner 
their  distinctive  political  nationality  was  at  length  lost,  it  only 
remains  to  show  how  their  religious  liberties  were  finally  re- 
covered. 

The  first  striking  effect  of  the  Union  was  to  introduce  Catholic 
Emancipation  into  the  category  of  imperial  difficulties,  and  to 
assign  it  the  very  first  place  on  the  list.  By  a  singular  retribu- 
tion, the  Pitt  administration  with  its  200  of  a  House  of  Commons 
majority,  its  absolute  control  of  the  Lords,  and  its  seventeen 
years'  prescription  in  its  favor,  fell  upon  this  very  question,  after 
they  had  used  it  to  carry  the  Union,  within  a  few  weeks  of  the 
consummation  of  that  Union.  The  cause  of  this  crisis  was  the 
invincible  obstinacy  of  the  king,  who  had  taken  into  his  head,  at 
the  time  of  Lord  Fitz\villiam's  recall  from  Ireland,  that  his  coro- 
nation oath  bound  him  in  conscience  to  resist  the  Cafliolic  claims. 
The  suggestion  of  this  obstacle  was  originally  Lord  Clare's ;  and 
th  ough  Lord  Kenyon  and  Lord  Stowell  had  declared  it  unfounded 
in  law,  Lord  Loughborough  and  Lord  Eldon  were  unfortunately 
of  a  different  opinion.  With  George  III.,  the  idea  became  • 


748  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRKLAIH). 

mor  omaniac  certainty,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  h« 
woijd  have  preferred  abdication  to  it*  abandonment 

The  king  was  not  for  several  months  aware  how  far  his  prime 
minister  had  gone  on  the  Catholic  question  in  Ireland.  But  those 
who  were  wear}-  of  Pitt's  ascendancy,  were,  of  course,  interested 
hi  giving  him  this  important  information.  The  minister  himself, 
wrapped  in  his  austere  self-reliance,  did  not  volunteer  explana- 
tions even  to  his  sovereign,  and  the  king  broke  silence  very  un- 
expectedly a  few  days  after  the  first  meeting  ot  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament (January  22d,  1801).  Stepping  up  to  Mr.  Dundas  at  the 
levee,  he  began  in  his  usual  manner,  "What's  this?  what's  this? 
this,  that  this  young  Lord  (Castlereagh)  has  brought  over  from 
Ireland  to  throw  at  my  head?  The  most  Jacobinical  thing  I 
ever  heard  of !  Any  man  who  proposes  such  a  thing  is  my  per- 
sonal enemy."  Mr.  Dundas  replied  respectfully  but  firmly,  and 
immediately  communicated  the  conversation  to  Mr.  Pitt  The 
king's  remarks  had  been  overheard  by  the  bystanders,  so  that 
either  the  minister  or  the  sovereign  had  now  to  give  way.  Pitt, 
at  first,  was  resolute ;  the  king  then  offered  to  impose  silence  on 
himself  as  regarded  the  whole  subject,  provided  Mr.  Pitt  would 
agree  to  do  likewise,  but  the  haughty  minister  refused,  and  ten- 
dered his  resignation.  On  the  5th  of  February,  within  five  weeks 
of  the  consummation  of  the  Union,  this  tender  was  most  reluct- 
antly and  regretfully  accepted.  Lord  Grenville,  Mr.  Dundas,  aud 
others  of  his  principal  colleagues  went  out  of  office  with  him ; 
Lord  Cornwallis  and  Lord  Castlereagh  following  their  example. 
Of  the  new  cabinet,  Addington,  the  speaker,  was  premier,  with 
Lord  Ilardwicke  as  lord-lieutenant  of  Ireland.  By  the  enemiei 
of  Pitt  this  was  looked  upon  as  a  mere  administration  ad  interim  ; 
as  a  concerted  arrangement  to  enable  him  to  evade  an  unfavor- 
able oeace — that  of  Amiens — which  he  saw  coming ;  but  it  is 
only  fair  to  say,  that  the  private  letters  of  the  period,  since  pub- 
li>hed,  do  not  sanction  any  such  imputation.  It  is,  however,  to 
be  observed,  per  contra,  that  three  weeks  after  his  formal  resigna- 
tion, lie  had  no  hesitation  in  assuring  the  king,  who  had  just  re- 
covered from  one  of  his  attack*  brought  on  by  this  crisis,  that  h« 
would  never  attain  ur^e  the  Catholic  claims  on  hfo  mnjcsty't 
notice.  On  this  understanding  he  returned  to  office  in  the  spring 


POPULAR    HISTO  IT    OF    IRELAND.  749 

rf  1804 ;  to  this  compact  he  adhered  till  his  death,  in  January 
1806. 

In  Irelar  d,  the  events  immediately  consequent  upon  the  Union, 
ware  such  as  might  have  been  expected.  Many  of  those  who  had 
been  instrument*?!  in  carrying  it,  were  disappointed  and  discon- 
tent with  their  new  situation  in  the  empire.  Of  these,  the  most 
conspicuous  and  the  least  to  be  pitied,  was  Lord  Clare.  That 
haughty,  domineering  spirit,  accustomed  to  dictate  with  almost 
absolute  power  to  the  privy  councillors  and  peerage  of  Ireland, 
experienced  nothing  but  mortification  in  the  Imperial  House  of 
Lords.  The  part  he  hoped  to  play  on  that  wider  stage  he  found 
impossible  to  assume ;  he  confronted  there  in  the  aged  Thurlow 
and  the  astute  Loughborough,  law  lords  as  absolute  as  himself, 
who  soon  made  him  conscious  that,  though  a  main  agent  of  the 
Union,  he  was  only  a  stranger  in  the  united  legislature.  The 
Duke  of  Bedford  reminded  him  that  "the  Union  had  not  trans- 
ferred his  dictatorial  powers  to  the  Imperial  Parliament ; "  othef 
noble  lords  were  hardly  less  severe.  Pitt  was  cold,  and  Gren- 
ville  ceremonious;  and  in  the  arrangements  of  the  Addington 
ministry  he  was  not  even  consulted.  He  returned  to  Ireland  be- 
fore the  first  year  of  the  Union  closed,  in  a  state  of  mind  and 
temper  which  preyed  upon  his  health.  Before  the  second  session 
of  the  Imperial  Parliament  assembled,  he  had  been  borne  to  the 
grave  amid  the  revilings  and  hootings  of  the  multitude.  Dublin, 
true  to  its  ancient  disposition,  which  led  the  townsfolk  of  the 
twelfth  century  to  bury  the  ancestor  of  Dermid  McMurrogh  with 
the  carcass  of  a  dog,  filled  the  grave  of  the  once  splendid  Lord 
Chancellor  with  every  description  of  garbage. 

On  the  other  hand  Lord  Castlereagh,  younger,  suppler,  and 
mor-e  accommodating  to  English  prejudices,  rose  from  one  Cabinet 
office  to  another,  until  at  length,  in  fifteen  years  from  the  Union, 
he  directed  the  destinies  of  the  Empire,  as  absolutely,  as  he  had 
moulded  the  fate  of  Ireland.  To  Castlereagh  and  the  Wellesley 
feuiily,  the  Union  was  in  truth,  an  era  of  honor  and  advance- 
ment. The  sons  of  the  spendthrift  amateur,  Lord  Mornir.gtoj, 
were  reserved  to  rule  India,  and  lead  the  armies  of  Europe ;  while 
the  son  of  Flood's  colleague  in  tbe  Reform  convention  of  1783,  \va« 
destined  to  give  law  to  Christendom,  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
63* 


V60  POPULAR    BISTORT    OT   IRELAND. 

A  career  very  different  in  all  respects  from  those  just  mention 
ed,  closed  in  the  second  year  of  Dublin's  widowhood  as  a  metro- 
polis. It  was  the  career  of  a  young  man  of  four-and4wenty,  who 
snatched  at  immortal  fame  and  obtained  it,  in  the  very  agony  of 
a  public,  but  not  for  him,  a  shameful  death.  This  was  Robert, 
youngest  brother  of  Thomas  Addis  Emmett,  whose  emeute  of  T803 
would  long  since  have  sunk  to  the  level  of  othet  city  riots,  but 
for  the  matchless  dying  speech  of  which  it  was  the  prelude  and 
the  occasion.  This  young  gentleman  was  in  hia  20th  year  when 
expelled  with  nineteen  others  from  Trinity  College,  in  1798,  by 
order  of  the  visitors,  Lord  Clare  and  Dr.  Duigenan.  His  repu- 
tation as  a  scholar  and  debater  was  already  established  within 
the  college  walls,  and  the  highest  expectations  were  naturally 
entertained  of  him  by  his  friends.  One  of  his  early  college  com- 
panions— Thomas  Moore — who  lived  to  know  all  the  leading  men 
of  his  age,  declares  that  of  all  he  had  ever  known,  he  would  place 
among  "  the  highest  of  the  few  "  who  combined  in  "  the  greatest 
degree  pure  moral  worth  with  intellectual  power" — Robert  Em- 
mett. After  the  expatriation  of  his  brother,  young  Emmett  visited 
him  at  Fort  George,  and  proceeded  from  thence  to  the  Continent. 
During  the  year  the  Union  was  consummated  he  visited  Spain, 
and  travelled  through  Holland,  France,  and  Switzerland  till  the 
peace  of  Amiens.  Subsequently  he  joined  his  brother's  family 
in  Paris,  and  was  taken  into  the  full  confidence  of  the  exiles,  then 
in  direct  communication  with  Buonaparte  and  Talleyrand.  It 
was  not  concealed  from  the  Irish  by  either  the  First  Consul,  or 
his  minister,  that  the  peace  with  England  was  likely  to  have  a 
ppeedy  termination  ;  and  accordingly,  they  were  not  unprepared 
for  the  new  declaration  of  war  between  the  two  countries,  which 
was  officially  made  at  London  and  Paris,  in  May,  1803 — little 
more  than  twelve  months  after  the  proclamation  of  the  peace  of 
Amiens. 

It  was  in  expectation  of  this  rupture,  and  a  consequent  in»a- 
•Ion  of  Ireland,  that  Robert  Emmett  returned  to  Dublin,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1802,  to  endeavor  to  reestablish  la  some  degree  the  old 
organization  of  the  United  Irishmen.  la  the  same  expectation, 
MacNevin,  Corbet,  and  others  of  the  Irish  in  France,  formed  them, 
•elves,  by  permission  ef  the  First  Consul,  into  a  legion,  under 


POPULAR   HI8TORT    OF   IRELAND.  761 

oommand  of  Tone's  trusty  aid-de-camp,  McSheehey ;  while  Thomaa 
Addis  Emmett  and  Arthur  O'Connor  remained  at  Paris,  the  pleni- 
potentiaries of  their  countrymen.  On  the  rupture  with  England 
Buonaparte  took  up  the  Irish  negotiation  with  much  earnestness ; 
he  even  suggested  to  the  exiles  the  colors  and  the  motto  under 
which  they  were  to  fight,  when  once  landed  on  their  own  soil. 
The  flag  on  a  tricolor  ground,  was  to  have  a  green  center,  bearing 
the  letters  R.  /. — Republique  Irlandaixe.  The  legend  at  large  waa 
to  be:  L 'independence  de  FIrlandc — LVisrte  dt  Conscience  ;  a  motto 
which  certainly  told  the  whole  story.  The  First  Consul  also 
suggested  the  formation  of  an  Irish  Committee  at  Paris,  and  the 
preparation  of  statements  of  Irish  grievances  for  the  Moniteur, 
and  the  semi-official  papers. 

Robert  Emmett  seems  to  have  been  confidently  of  opinion  soon 
after  his  return  to  Dublin,  that  nineteen  out  of  the  thirty-two 
counties  would  rise ;  and,  perhaps,  if  a  sufficient  French  force  had 
landed,  his  opinion  might  have  been  justified  by  the  fact.  So  did 
iot  think,  however,  John  Keogh,  Valentine  Lawless  (Lord  Clon- 
curry),  and  other  close  observers  of  the  state  of  the  country.  But 
Emmett  was  enthusiastic,  and  he  inspired  his  own  spirit  into 
many.  Mr.  Long,  a  merchant,  placed  £1,400  sterling  at  his  dis- 
posal ;  he  had  himself,  in  consequence  of  the  recent  death  of  hid 
father,  stock  to  the  amount  of  £1,500  converted  into  cash,  and 
with  these  funds  he  entered  actively  on  his  preliminary  prepara- 
tions.  His  chief  confidants  and  assistants  were  Thomas  RusselJ 
and  Mathew  Dowdall,  formerly  prisoners  at  Fort  George,  but  now 
permitted  to  return;  William  Putnam  McCabe,  the  most  adven- 
turous of  all  the  party,  a  perfect  Protons  in  disguise ;  Gray,  a 
Wexford  attorney;  Colonel  Lumm  of  Kildare,  an  old  frie'id  of 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald ;  Mr.  Long,  before  mentioned ;  Hamil- 
ton, an  EnnisMUen  barrister,  married  to  Russell's  niece ;  Jamea 
Hop*  of  Templepatrick,  and  Michael  Dwyer,  the  Wicklow  out- 
law, who  had  remained  since  '98  uncaptured  in  the  mountains. 

In  the  month  of  March,  when  the  renewal  of  hostilities  with 
France  was  decided  on  in  England,  the  preparations  of  the  con 
spirators  were  pushed  forward  with  redoubled  energy.  The  still 
wilder  conspiracy  headed  by  Colonel  Despard  in  London,  the  pr»- 
rious  winter,  the  iecret  and  the  fate  of  which  was  well  known  to 


752  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAKD. 

the  Dublin  leaders — Dowdall  be'lng  Despard's  agent — did  net  In 
the  Ieaa4  intimidate  Emmett  or  his  friends.  Despard  suffered 
death  in  February,  with  nine  of  his  followers,  but  his  Irish  con- 
federates only  went  on  with  their  arrangements  with  A  more 
reckless  resolution.  Their  plan  was  the  plan  of  O'Moore  and 
Maguire,  to  surprise  the  Castle,  seize  the  authorities  and  secure 
the  capital;  but  the  Dublin  of  1803  was  in  many  respects  very 
different  from  the  Dublin  of  1641.  The  discontent,  however,  arising 
from  the  recent  loss  of  the  Parliament  might  have  turned  the  city 
scale  in  Emmett's  favor,  had  his  first  stroke  been  successful.  The 
emissaries  at  work  in  the  Leinster  and  Ulster  counties  gave  besides 
sanguine  reports  of  success,  so  that,  judging  by  the  information 
in  his  possession,  an  older  and  cooler  head  than  Robert  Emmett's 
might  well  have  been  misled  into  the  expectation  of  nineteen 
counties  rising  if  the  signal  could  only  be  given  from  Dublin 
Castle.  If  the  blow  could  be  withheld  till  August,  there  was 
every  reason  to  expect  a  French  invasion  of  England,  which 
would  drain  away  all  the  regular  army,  and  leave  the  people 
merely  the  militia  and  the  volunteers  to  contend  asainst.  But 
all  the  Dublin  arrangements  exploded  in  the  melancholy  emeutt 
of  the  23d  of  July,  1803,  in  which  the  chief-justice,  Lord  Kilwat' 
den,  passing  through  the  disturbed  quarter  of  the  city  at  the 
time,  was  cruelly  murdered ;  for  which,  and  for  his  cause,  Emmett 
suffered  death  on  the  same  spot  on  the  20th  of  September  follow- 
ing. For  the  same  cause,  the  equally  pure-minded  and  chivalrous 
Thomas  Russell  was  executed  at  Downpatrick :  Kearney,  Roche, 
Redmond  and  Ilowley  also  suffered  death  at  Dublin;  Allen, 
Putnam  McCabe  and  Dowdall  escaped  to  France,  where  the  for- 
mer became  an  officer  of  rank  in  the  army  of  Napoleon;  Michael 
Dwyer,  who  had  surrendered  on  condition  of  being  allowed  to 
emigrate  to  North  America,  died  in  exile  in  Australia,  in  1825. 
Others  of  Emmett's  known  or  suspected  friends,  after  undergoing 
two,  three,  mid  even  four  years'  imprisonment,  were  finally  dis- 
charged without  trial  Mr.  Long,  his  generous  banker,  and 
James  Ilope,  his  faithful  emissary,  were  both  permitted  to  end 
their  days  in  Ireland. 

The  trial  of  Robert  Emmett,  from  the  wonderful  death  speech 
delivered  at  it,  is  perfectly  well  known.     But  in  justice  to  A  mag 


POPCLAR   HISTORY    OP   IRELAND.  753 

of  genius  equal  if  not  superior  to  his  own — an  Irishman,  whose 
memory  is  national  property,  as  well  as  Emmett's,  it  must  here  be 
observed,  that  the  latter  never  delirered,  and  had  no  justification 
to  deliver  the  vulgar  diatribe  against  Plunkett,  his  prosecutor, 
now  constantly  printed  in  the  common  and  incorrect  versions  of 
that  speech.  Plunkett,  as  attorney-general,  in  1803,  had  no  option 
but  to  prosecute  for  the  crown ;  he  was  a  politician  of  a  totally 
different  school  from  that  of  Emmett ;  he  shared  all  Burke  and 
Grattan's  hoiror  of  French  revolutionary  principles.  In  the 
fervor  of  his  accusatory  oration  he  may  have  gone  too  far ;  he 
may  have,  and  in  reading  it  now,  it  is  clear  to  us  that  he  did, 
press  too  hard  upon  the  prisoner  in  the  dock.  He  might  have 
performed  his  awful  office  with  more  sorrow  and  less  vehemence, 
for  there  was  no  doubt  about  his  jury.  But  withal,  he  gave  no  fair 
grounds  fur  any  such  retort  as  is  falsely  attributed  to  Emmett, 
the  very  style  of  which  proves  its  falsity.  It  is  now  well  known 
that  the  apostrophe  in  the  death  speech,  commencing  "  you 
viper,"  alleged  to  have  been  addressed  to  Plunkett,  was  the  inter- 
polation many  years  afterwards  of  that  literary  Ishmaelite — Wal- 
ter Oox  of  the  Hibernian  Magazine; — who  through  such  base 
means  endeavored  to  aim  a  blow  at  Plunkett's  reputation.  The 
personal  reputation  of  the  younger  Emmett,  the  least  known  to 
his  countrymen  of  all  the  United  Irish  leaders,  except  by  the 
crowning  act  of  his  death,  is  safe  beyond  the  reach  of  calumny, 
or  party  zeal,  or  time's  changes.  It  is  embalmed  in  the  verse  of 
Moore  and  Southey,  and  the  precious  prose  of  Washington  Irving. 
Men  of  genius  in  England  and  America  Imve  done  honor  to  hit 
memory ;  in  the  annals  of  his  own  country  his  name  deserves  to 
stand  with  those  youthful  chiefs,  equally  renowned,  and  equally 
ready  to  seal  their  patriotism  with  their  blood  —  Sir  Cahix 
O'Doherty  and  Hugb  Roe  O'Donnell 


POPULAR    BISTORT    O?   IRSLAKD. 


CHAPTER  EL 

ADMUOBT&ATICK  OF  LORD  HARD  WICKS  (1801  TO  1806),  AHD  Of  TH1 
DUKE  OF  BEDFORD  (1806  TO  1808). 

DURING  the  five  years  in  which  Lord  Hardwicke  was  viceroy 
of  Ireland,  the  habeas  corpus  remained  suspended,  and  the  Insur- 
rection Act  continued  in  forca  These  were  the  years  in  which 
the  power  of  Napoleon  made  the  most  astonishing  strides;  the 
years  in  which  he  remodeled  the  German  Empire,  placed  on  hia 
own  head  the  iron  crown  of  Lombardy,  on  his  sister's  that  of 
Etruria,  and  on  his  brother's  that  of  Holland ;  when  the  Consulate 
gave  place  to  the  Empire,  and  Dukedoms  and  Principalities  were 
freely  distributed  among  the  marshals  of  the  Grand  Army.  Dur- 
ing all  these  years,  Napoleon  harassed  England  with  menaces  of 
invasion,  and  excited  Ireland  with  corresponding  hopes  of  inter- 
vention. The  more  far  seeing  United  Irishmen,  however,  had  so 
little  faith  in  these  demonstrations  that  Emmett  and  MacNevin 
emigrated  to  the  United  States,  leaving  behind  them  in  the  ranks 
of  the  French  army,  those  of  their  compatriots  who,  either  from 
habit  or  preference,  had  become  attached  to  a  military  life.  It 
must  however  be  borne  in  mind,  for  it  is  essential  to  the  under- 
standing of  England's  policy  towards  Ireland,  in  the  first  twelve 
or  fourteen  years  after  the  Union,  that  the  wild  hope  of  a  French 
invasion  never  forsook  the  hearts  of  a  large  portion  of  the  Irish 
people,  so  long  as  Napoleon  Buonaparte  continued  at  the  head  of 
the  government  of  France.  During  the  whole  of  that  period  the 
British  government  were  kept  in  constant  apprehension  for  Ire- 
land ;  under  this  feeling  they  kept  up  and  increased  the  local 
militia;  strengthened  garrisons,  and  replenished  magazine*: 
constructed  a  chain  of  Martello  towers  round  the  entire  coaat, 
and  maintained  in  full  rigor  the  Insurrection  Act.  They  refused, 
indeed,  to  the  Munster  magistrates  in  1808,  and  subsequently,  the 
power  of  summary  convictions  which  they  possessed  in  '98 ;  bat 
they  sent  special  Commissions  of  their  own  into  the  suspected 
counties,  who  put  men  to  death  with  M  little  reinorte  M  if  thej 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  55 

had  been  so  many  hydrophobic  dogs.  Ten,  twelve,  and  eren 
twenty  capital  executions  was  no  uncommon  result  of  a  single 
sitting  of  one  of  those  murderous  commissions,  over  which  Lord 
Nbrbury  presided ;  but  it  must  be  added  that  there  were  other 
judges,  who  observed  not  only  the  decencies  of  every-day  life, 
but  who  interpreted  the  law  in  mercy  as  well  as  in  justice.  They 
were  a  minority,  it  is  true,  but  there  were  some  such,  neverthe- 
less. 

The  session  of  the  Imperial  Parliament  of  1803-'4,  was  chiefly 
remarkable  for  its  war  speeches  and  war  budget.  In  Ireland 
60,000  men  of  the  regular  militia  were  under  arms  and  under 
pay  ;  70,000  volunteers  were  enrolled,  battalioned  and  ready  to 
be  called  out  in  case  of  emergency,  to  which  it  was  proposed  to 
add  25,000  sta-fencibles.  General  Fox,  who  it  was  alleged  had 
neglected  taking  proper  precaution  at  the  time  of  Robert  Emmett'a 
emeute,  was  replaced  by  Lord  Cathcart,  as  commander-in-chief. 
The  public  reports  at  least  of  this  officer,  were  highly  laudatory 
of  the  discipline  and  conduct  of  the  Irish  militia. 

In  May,  1804,  Mr.  Pitt  returned  to  power,  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  and  Prime  Minister,  when  the  whole  Pitt  policy  to- 
wards Ireland,  France,  and  America,  was  of  course  resumed ;  a 
policy  which  continued  to  be  acted  on  during  the  short  remainder 
of  the  life  of  its  celebrated  author. 

The  year  1806  may  be  callsd  the  first  year  of  the  revival  of 
public  spirit  and  public  opinion  after  the  Union.  In  that  year 
Grattan  had  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  by  Fox,  into  enter- 
ing the  Imperial  Parliament,  and  his  old  friend  Lord  Fitzwilliam 
found  a  constituency  for  him,  in  his  Yorkshire  borough  of  Malton. 
About  the  same  time,  Pitt,  or  his  colleagues,  induced  Plunkett  to 
enter  the  same  great  assembly,  providing  him  with  a  constituency 
at  Midhurst,  in  Sussex.  But  they  did  not  succeed — if  they  ever 
attempted — to  match  Plunkett  with  Grattan.  Those  great  men 
were  warm  and  close  friends  in  the  Imperial  as  they  had  been  in 
the  Irish  Parliament ;  very  dissimilar  in  their  genius,  they  were 
both  decided  anti-Jacobins ;  both  strenuous  advocates  of  the  Catho- 
lic claims,  and  both  proud  and  fond  of  their  original  country. 
Grattan  had  more  poetry,  and  Plunkett  more  science ;  but  tht 
h*art  of  the  man  of  colder  exterior  opened  and  swelled  out,  is 


V56  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

one  of  the  noblest  tributes  ever  paid  by  one  great  orator  U 
another,  w.ien  Plunkett  introduced  in  1821,  in  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament, his  allusion  to  his  illustrious  Mend,  then  recently  de- 
ceased. 

Preparatory  to  the  meeting  of  Parliament  in  1805,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  old  Catholic  Committee  who  had  not  met  for  any  such 
purpose  for  several  years,  assembled  in  Dublin,  and  prepared  a 
petition  which  they  authorized  their  chairman,  Lord  Fingall,  to 
place  in  such  hands  as  he  might  choose,  for  presentation  in  both 
Houses.  His  lordship  on  reaching  London  waited  on  Mr.  Pitt, 
and  entreated  him  to  take  charge  of  the  petition ;  but  he  found 
that  the  Prime  Minister  had  promised  the  king  one  thing  and  the 
Catholics  another,  and,  therefore,  declined  acceding  to  hia  request. 
He  then  gave  the  petition  into  the  charge  of  Lord  Grenville  and 
Mr.  Fox,  and  by  them  the  subject  was  brought  accordingly  before 
the  Lords  and  Commons.  This  debate  in  the  Commons  was  remark- 
able in  many  respects,  but  most  of  all  for  G  rattan's  cKbut.  A 
lively  curiosity  to  hear  one  of  whom  so  mucn  had  been  said  in 
his  own  country,  pervaded  the  whole  House,  as  Grattan  rose, 
His  grotesque  little  figure,  his  eccentric  action,  and  his  strangely 
cadenced  sentences  rather  surprised  than  attracted  attention,  but 
as  he  warmed  with  the  march  of  ideas,  men  of  both  parties 
warmed  to  the  genial  aod  enlarged  philosophy,  embodied  in  the 
interfused  rhetoric  and  logic  of  th«  orator ;  PUt  was  seen  to  beat 
time  with  his  hand  to  every  curiously  proportioned  period,  and 
at  length  both  sides  of  the  House  broke  into  hearty  acknowledge- 
ments of  the  genius  of  the  new  member  for  Malton.  But  as  yet 
their  cheers  were  not  followed  by  their  votes ;  the  division  against 
going  into  Committee  was  336  to  124. 

In  sustaining  Fox's  motion,  Sir  John  Cox  Hippesley  had  sug- 
gested "  the  Veto"  as  a  safeguard  against  the  encroachments  of 
Rome,  which  the  Irish  bishops  would  not  be  disposed  to  refuse. 
Archbishop  Troy,  and  Dr.  Moylan,  Bishop  of  Cork,  gave  consid- 
erable praise  to  this  speech,  and  partly  at  their  request  it  was 
published  in  pamphlet  form.  TbiB  brought  up  directly  s  discus- 
sion among  the  Catholics,  which  lasted  until  1810,  was  renewed 
in  1813,  and  not  finally  set  at  rest  till  the  passage  of  the  bill  of 
1829,  without  any  such  safeguard  Sir  John  C,  Hippesley  had 


POPULAR   HISTOBT    OF   IRKULHD.  757 

modeled  his  proposal,  he  said,  on  the  liberties  of  the  Galilean 
Church.  "  Her  privileges,"  he  added,  "  depended  on  two  promi- 
nent maxims :  1st.  That  the  Pope  had  no  authority  to  order  or 
interfere  in  anything  in  which  the  civil  rights  of  the  kingdom 
were  concerned.  2d.  That  notwithstanding  the  Pope's  suprem- 
acy was  acknowledged  in  cases  purely  spiritual,  yet,  in  other  re 
epects,  his  power  was  limited  by  the  decrees  of  the  ancient  COUD 
cils  of  the  realm."  The  Irish  church,  therefore,  was  to  be  similarlj 
administered,  to  obviate  the  objections  of  the  opponents  of  com- 
plete civil  emancipation. 

In  February,  1806,  on  the  death  of  Pitt,  Mr.  Fox  came  into 
power,  with  an  uncertain  majority  and  a  powerful  opposition.  In 
April,  the  Duke  of  Bedford  arrived,  as  viceroy  at  Dublin,  and 
the  Catholics  presented,  through  Mr.  Keogh,  a  mild  address,  ex- 
pressive of  their  hopes  that  "  the  glorious  development "  of  their 
emancipation  would  be  reserved  for  the  new  government.  The 
Duke  returned  an  evasive  answer  in  public,  but  privately,  both 
at  Dublin  and  London,  the  Catholics  were  assured  that,  as  soon 
as  the  new  premier  could  convert  the  king — as  soon  as  he  was  in 
a  position  to  act — he  would  make  their  cause  his  own.  No  doubt 
Fox,  who  had  great  nobleness  of  soul,  intended  to  do  so ;  but  on 
the  13th  of  September  of  the  same  year,  he  followed  his  great 
rival,  Pitt,  to  the  vaults  of  Westminster  Abbey.  A  few  montha 
only  had  intervened  between  the  death  of  the  rivals.' 

Lords  Grey  and  Grenville,  during  the  next  recess,  having 
formed  a  new  administration,  instructed  their  Irish  secretary,  Mr. 
Elliot,  to  put  himself  in  communication  with  the  Catholics,  in  re- 
lation to  a  measure  making  them  eligible  to  naval  and  military 
offices.  The  Catholics  accepted  this  proposal  with  pleasure,  but 
at  the  opening  of  the  session  of  1807,  in  a  deputation  to  the  Irish 
government,  again  urged  the  question  of  complete  emancipation. 
The  bill  in  relation  to  the  army  and  navy  had,  originally,  the 
king's  acquiescence  ;  but  early  in  March,  after  it  had  passed  the 
Commons,  George  III.  changed  his  mind — if  the  expression  may 
be  used  of  him — at  that  time.  He  declared  he  had  not  consid- 
ered it  at  first  eo  important  as  he  afterwards  found  it ;  he  inti- 
mated that  it  could  not  receive  his  sanction  ;  he  went  farther — 
he  required  a  written  pledge  from  Lords  Grey  and  Gpjnville 
64 


*T58  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND. 

never  again  to  bring  forward  such  a  measire,  "  nor  ever  to  pro- 
pose  anything  connected  with  the  Catholic  question."  This  un« 
constitutional  pledge  they  refused  to  give,  hurried  the  bill  into 
law  and  resigned.  Mr.  Spencer  Perceval  was  then  sent  for,  and 
what  was  called  "  the  No-Popery  cabinet,"  in  which  Mr.  Canning 
and  Lord  Castlereagh  were  the  principal  secretaries  of  state,  was 
formed.  Thus,  for  the  second  time  in  six  years,  had  the  Catholic 
question,  made  and  unmade  cabinets. 

The  Catholics  were  a  good  deal  dispirited  in  1805,  by  the  over- 
whelming majority  by  which  their  petition  of  that  year  was 
refused  to  be  referred  to  a  committee.  In  1806,  they  contented 
themselves  with  simply  addressing  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  on  hia 
arrival  at  Dublin.  In  1807,  the  "  No-Popery  cabinet,"  by  the 
result  of  the  elections,  was  placed  in  possession  of  an  immense 
majority — a  fact  which  excluded  all  prospects  of  another  change 
of  government.  But  the  Committee  were  too  long  accustomed  to 
disappointments  to  despair  even  under  these  reverses.  Early  in 
the  next  session  their  petition  was  presented,  by  Mr.  Gratten  in 
the  Commons,  and  Lord  Donoughmore  in  the  Lords.  The  major 
ity  against  going  into  committee  was,  in  the  Commons,  153 ;  in 
the  Lords,  87.  Similar  motions  in  the  session  of  1808,  made  by 
lie  same  parties,  were  rejected  by  majorities  somewhat  reduced, 
and  the  question,  on  the  whole,  might  be  said  to  have  recovered 
some  of  its  former  vantage  ground,  in  despite  of  the  bitter,  per 
tinacious  resistance  of  Mr.  Perceval,  in  the  one  House,  and  the 
Duke  of  Portland  in  the  other. 

The  short-lived  administration  of  Mr.  Fox,  though  it  was  said 
to  include  "  all  the  talents."  had  been  full  of  nothing  but  disap- 
pointment to  his  Irish  supporters.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  was, 
Indeed,  a  great  improvement  on  Lord  Hardwicke,  and  Mr.  Pon- 
sonby  on  Lord  Redesdale,  as  Chancellor,  and  the  liberation  of  the 
political  prisoners  confined  since  1803  did  honor  to  the  new  ad- 
ministration. But  there  the  measures  of  justice  so  credulously 
expected,  both  as  to  persons  and  interests,  ended.  Curran,  whose 
professional  claims  to  advancement  were  far  beyond  those  of 
dozens  of  men  who  had  been,  during  the  past  ten  years,  lifted  over 
his  head,  was  neglected,  and  very  naturally  dissatisfied ;  0 rattan, 
never  well  adaf  ted  for  a  courtier,  could  not  obta'n  even  raloof 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND.  75d 

Appointments  for  his  oldest  and  stauuchest  adherents ;  while  the 
Catholics  found  their  Whig  friends,  now  that  they  were  in  offica, 
as  anxious  to  exact  the  hard  conditions  of  the  Veto  as  Castle- 
reagh  himself. 

In  truth,  the  Catholic  body  at  this  period,  and  for  a  few  year* 
subsequently,  was  deplorably  disorganized.  The  young  genera- 
tion of  Catholic  lawyers  who  had  grown  up  since  the  relief  act 
of  '93  threw  the  profession  open  to  them,  were  men  of  another 
stamp  from  the  old  generation  of  Catholic  merchants,  who  had 
grown  up  under  the  relief  act  of  17Y8.  In  the  ten  years  before 
the  Union,  the  Catholic  middle  class  was  headed  by  men  of  busi- 
ness ;  in  the  period  we  have  now  reached,  their  principal  spokes- 
men came  from  "  the  Four  Courts."  John  Keogh,  the  ablest, 
wisest  and  firmest  of  the  former  generation,  was  now  passing  into 
the  decline  of  life,  was  frequently  absent  from  the  Committee,  and 
when  present,  frequently  overruled  by  younger  and  more  ardent 
men.  In  1808,  his  absence,  from  illness,  was  regretted  by  Mr. 
O'Connell  in  an  eloquent  speech  addressed  to  the  Committee  on 
the  necessity  of  united  action  and  incessant  petitions.  "  Had  he 
been  present,"  said  the  young  barrister,  "  his  powers  of  reason- 
ing would  have  frightened  away  the  captious  objections  "  to  that 
course,  "  and  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  would  again  have  to  thank 
their  old  and  useful  servant  for  the  preservation  of  their  honor 
and  the  support  of  their  interests."  It  was  a  strange  anomaly, 
and  one  which  continued  for  some  years  longer,  that  the  states- 
men of  the  Catholic  body  should  be  all  Protestants.  A  more 
generous  or  tolerant  spirit  than  Grattan's  never  existed ;  a  clearer 
or  more  fearless  intellect  than  Plunkett's  was  not  to  be  found ; 
nobler  and  more  disinterested  friends  than  Ponsonby,  Curran, 
Burroughs  and  Wallace,  no  people  ever  had ;  but  still  they  were 
fiiends  from  without;  men  of  another  religion,  or  of  DO  particu- 
lar religion,  advising  and  guiding  an  eminently  religious  peopla 
In  their  struggle  for  religious  liberty.  This  could  not  always 
last ;  it  was  not  natural,  it  was  not  desirabk  that  it  should  last, 
though  some  years  more  were  to  pass  away  before  Catholic 
Emancipation  was  to  be  accomplished  by  the  union,  the  energy 
and  "iie  strategy  of  th-9  Catholics  themselves. 


760  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF   IRELAND. 

CHAPTER  ni 

ADMINISTRATION   OF   THE   DPK«   OF   RICHMOND — (1807   TO    1818). 

CHARLES,  fourth  Duke  of  Richmond,  succeeded  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  aa  viceroy,  in  April,  1807,  with  Lord  Manners  as  Lord 
Chancellor,  John  Foster,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — for  the 
separate  exchequer  of  Ireland  continued  to  exist  till  1820 — and 
Sir  Arthur  Wellcsley,  aa  Chief  Secretary.  Of  these  names,  tha 
two  last  were  already  familiar  to  their  countrymen,  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  their  own  Parliament;  but  the  new  Chief 
Secretary  had  lately  returned  home  covered  with  Indian  laurels, 
and  full  of  the  promise  of  other  honors  and  victories  to  come. 

The  spirit  of  this  administration  was  repressive,  anti-Catholic 
and  high  Tory.  To  maintain  and  strengthen  British  power,  to 
keep  the  Catholics  quiet,  to  get  possession  of  the  Irish  represen- 
tation and  convert  it  into  a  means  of  support  for  the  Tory  party 
in  England,  these  were  the  leading  objects  of  the  seven  years'  ad- 
ministration of  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  Lcag  afterwards,  when 
the  chief  secretary  of  1807,  had  become  "  the  most  high,  mighty 
and  noble  prince,"  whom  all  England,  and  nearly  all  Europe  de- 
lighted to  honor,  he  defended  the  Irish  administration  of  which 
he  had  formed  a  part,  for  its  habitual  use  of  corrupt  means  and 
influence,  in  arguments  which  do  more  credit  to  his  frankness 
than  his  morality.  He  had  "  to  turn  the  moral  weakness  of  in- 
dividuals to  good  account/'  such  was  his  argument.  He  stoutly 
denied  that  "  the  whole  nation  IB,  or  ever  was  corrupt ; "  bat  aa 
"  almost  every  man  of  mark  has  his  price,"  the  Chief  Secretary 
waa  obliged  to  use  corrupt  influences  "  to  command  a  majority  in 
favor  of  order ; "  however  the  particular  kinds  of  influence  em- 
ployed might  go  against  hid  grain,  he  had,  as  he  contended,  no 
other  alternative  but  to  employ  them. 

With  the  exception  of  a  two  months  campaign  in  Denmark- 
July  to  September,  1807 — Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  continued  to  fill 
the  office  of  Chief  Secretary,  until  his  departure  for  rtio  Peninsula, 
In  July,  1808.  Even  then  he  was  expressly  requested  to  reUU 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  Y6l 

ttie  nominal  office,  with  power  to  appoint  a  deputy,  and  receiv* 
meanwhile  the  very  handsome  salary  of  £8,000  sterling  a  year 
lu  the  wonderful  military  events,  in  which  during  the  next  seven 
years  Sir  Arthur  was  to  play  a  leading  part,  the  comparatively 
unimportant  particulars  of  his  Irish  Secretariate  have  been  long 
since  forgotten.  We  have  already  described  the  general  spirit  at 
that  administration:  it  is  only  just  to  add,  that  the  dispassionate 
and  resolute  secretary,  though  he  never  shrank  from  his  share  of 
the  jobbery  done  daily  at  the  Castle,  repressed  with  as  much 
firmness  the  over- zeal  of  those  he  calls  "red-hot  Protestants,"  as 
he  showed  in  resisting,  at  that  period,  what  he  considered  the  un- 
constitutional pretensions  of  the  Catholics.  An  instance  of  the  im- 
partiality to  which  he  was  capable  of  rising,  when  uninfluenced  by 
partisan  or  religious  prejudices,  is  afforded  by  his  letter  dissuad- 
ing the  Wexford  yeomanry  from  celebrating  the  anniversary  of 
the  battle  of  Vinegar  Hill.  He  regarded  such  a  celebration  as 
certain  "  to  exasperate  party  spirit,"  and  "  to  hurt  the  feelings 
of  others ; "  he,  therefore,  in  the  name  of  the  lord  lieutenant, 
strongly  discouraged  it,  and  the  intention  was  accordingly  aban- 
doned. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  same  judicious  rule  was  not 
at  the  same  time  enforced  by  government  as  to  the  celebration 
of  the  much  more  obsolete  and  much  more  invidious  anniversaries 
of  Aughrim  and  the  Boyne. 

The  general  election  which  followed  the  death  of  Fox,  in  No- 
vember, 1806,  was  the  first  great  trial  of  political  strength  under 
the  Union.  As  was  right  and  proper,  Mr.  Grattan,  no  longer 
indebted  for  a  seat  to  an  English  patron  however  liberal,  was  re- 
turned at  the  head  of  the  poll  for  the  city  of  Dublin.  His  asso- 
ciate, however,  the  banker,  La  Touche,  was  defeated  ;  the  second 
member  elect  being  Mr.  Robert  Shaw,  the  Orange  candidate. 
The  Catholic  electors  to  a  man,  under  the  vigorous  prompting  of 
John  Keogh  and  his  friends,  polled  their  votes  for  their  Protestant 
•dyocate;  they  did  more,  they  subscribed  the  sum  of  £4,000 
sterling  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  contest,  but  this  sum  Mrs. 
Grattan  induced  the  treasurer  to  return  to  the  subscribers.  Ever 
watchful  for  her  husband's  honor,  that  admirable  woman,  as  ar- 
dent a  patriot  as  himself,  refused  the  generous  tender  of  the 
Catholics  of  Dublin.  Although  his  several  elections  had  coat 


62  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 

Mr.  Grattan  above  £54,000 — more  than  the  whole  national  grant 
of  1782 — she  would  not,  in  this  case,  that  any  one  else  should 
bear  the  cost  of  his  last  triumph  in  the  widowed  capital  of  his 
own  country. 

The  great  issue  tried  in  this  election  of  1807,  in  those  of  1812, 
1818,  and  1826,  was  still  the  Catholic  question.  All  other  Irish, 
and  most  of,her  imperial  domestic  questions  were  subordinate  to 
this.  In  one  shape  or  another,  it  came  up  in  every  session  of 
Parliament.  It  entered  into  the  calculations  of  eveiy  statesman 
of  e  very  party ;  it  continued  to  make  and  unmake  cabinets ;  in 
the  press  and  in  every  society,  it  was  the  principal  topic  of  dis- 
cussion. While  tracing,  therefore,  its  progress,  from  year  to 
year,  we  do  but  follow  the  main  stream  of  national  history ;  all 
other  branches  come  back  again  to  this  centre,  or  exhaust 
themselves  in  secondary  and  forgotten  results. 

The  Catholics  themselves,  deprived  in  Ireland  of  a  parliament 
on  which  they  could  act  directly,  were  driven  more  and  more 
into  permanent  association,  as  the  only  means  of  operating  a 
change  in  the  Imperial  legislature.  The  val'ie  of  a  legal,  popu- 
lar, systematic,  and  continuous  combination  of  "  the  ^people  "  act- 
ing  within  the  law,  by  means  of  meetings,  resolutions,  corres- 
pondence, and  petitions,  was  not  made  suddenly,  nor  by  all  the 
party  interested,  at  one  and  the  same  time.  On  the  minds  of  the 
more  sagacious,  however,  an  impression,  favorable  to  such  organ- 
ized action,  grew  dl-cper  year  by  year,  and  at  hist  settled  into  a 
certainty  which  was  justified  by  success. 

In  May,  1809,  the  Catholic  Committee  had  been  reconstructed, 
and  its  numbers  enlarged.  In  a  series  of  resolutions  it  was  agreed 
that  the  Catholic  lords,  the  surviving  delegates  of  1798,  the  com- 
mittee which  managed  the  petitions  of  1805  and  1807,  and  such 
persons  "  as  shall  distinctly  appear  to  them  to  possess  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Catholic  body,"  do  form  henceforth  the  General 
Committee.  It  was  proposed  by  O'Connoll,  to  avoid  "  the  Con- 
vention Act,"  "  that  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  aforesaid  are  not 
representatives  of  the  Catholic  body,  or  any  portion  thereof." 
The  Committee  were  authorized  to  collect  funds  for  defraying  ex- 
penses; a  treasurer  was  chosen,  and  a  permanent  Secretary,  Mr 
Edward  Hay,  the  historian  of  the  Wex'ord  rebellion— an  activt 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OP   IRKLAWD.  Y6I 

And  intelligent  officer.  The  new  committee  acted  with  great 
judgment  in  1810,  but  in  1811  Lord  Fingal  and  his  friends  pro- 
jected a  General  Assembly  of  the  leading  Catholics,  contrary  to 
the  Convention  Act,  and  to  the  resolution  just  cited.  O'Connell 
was  opposed  to  this  proposition ;  yet  the  assembly  met,  and  were 
dispersed  by  the  authorities  The  chairman,  Lord  Fingal,  and 
Drs.  Sheridan  and  Kirwan,  secretaries,  were  arrested.  Lord 
Fingal,  however,  was  not  prosecuted,  but  the  Secretaries  were, 
and  one  of  them  expiated  by  two  years'  imprisonment  his  viola- 
tion of  the  act.  To  get  rid  of  the  very  pretext  of  illegality,  the 
Catholic  Committee  dissolved,  but  only  to  reappear  under  a  less 
vulnerable  form,  as  "  the  Catholic  Board." 

It  is  from  the  year  1810  that  we  must  date  the  rise,  among 
the  Catholics  themselves,  of  a  distinctive  line  of  policy,  suited  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  present  century,  and  the  first  appear- 
ance of  a  group  of  public  men,  capable  of  maintaining  and  en- 
forcing that  policy.  Not  that  the  ancient  leaders  of  that  body 
were  found  deficient,  informer  times,  either  in  foresight  or  deter- 
mination ;  but  new  times Called  for  new  men ;  the  Irish  Catholics 
were  now  to  seek  their  emancipation  from  the  imperial  govern- 
ment ;  new  tactics  and  new  combinations  were  necessarv  to  suc- 
cess ;  and,  in  fcrief,  instead  of  being  liberated  from  their  bonds  at 
the  good  will  and  pleasure  of  benevolent  Protestants,  it  was  now 
to  be  tested  whether  they  were  capable  of  contributing  to  their 
own  emancipation, — whether  they  were  willing  and  able  to  assist 
their  friends  and  to  punish  their  enemies. 

Though  the  Irish  Catholics  could  not  legally  meet  in  conven- 
tion any  more  than  their  Protestant  fellow-countrymen,  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  them  assembling  voluntarily,  from  every  part 
of  the  kingdom,  without  claim  to  delegation.  With  whom  the 
happy  idea  of  "  the  aggregate  meetings "  originated  is  not  cer- 
tainly known,  but  to  O'Connell  and  the  younger  set  of  leading 
spirits  this  was  a  machinery  capable  of  being  worked  with  good 
effect  No  longer  confined  to  a  select  Committee,  composed 
mainly  of  a  few  aged  and  cautious,  though  distinguished  persons, 
the  fearless  "  agitators,"  as  they  now  began  to  be  called,  stood 
face  to  face  with  the  body  of  the  people  themselves.  The  disused 
theatre  in  Fishamble  street  waa  their  habitual  place  of  meeting 


764  POPULAR    HISTORY    Of   IRELAND. 

in  Dublin,  and  there,  in  1811  and  1812,  the  orators  met  to  criticiM 
the  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond — to  denounce  Mr.  Welles- 
ley  Pole — to  attack  secretaries  of  state  and  prime  ministers — tc 
return  thanks  to  Lords  Grey  and  Grenville  for  refusing  to  gira 
the  unconstitutional  anti-Catholic  pledge  required  by  the  king 
and  to  memorial  the  Prince  Regent.  From  those  meetings,  espe- 
cially in  the  year  1812,  the  leadership  of  O'Conneil  must  be  dated. 
After  seven  years  of  wearisome  probation,  after  enduring  seven 
years  the  envy  and  the  calumny  of  many  who,  as  they  were  hia 
fellow-laborers,  should  have  been  his  friends ;  after  demonstrating 
for  seven  years  that  his  judgment  and  his  courage  were  equal  to 
his  eloquence,  the  successful  Kerry  barrister,  then  in  his  thirty- 
seventh  year,  was  at  length  generally  recognized  as  "  the  coun- 
sellor "  of  his  co-religionists — as  the  veritable  "  Man  of  the  Peo- 
ple." Dangers,  delays  and  difficulties  lay  thick  and  dark  in  the 
future,  but  from  the  year,  when  in  Dublin,  Cork  and  Limerick, 
the  voice  of  the  famous  advocate  was  recognized  as  the  voice  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  their  cause  was  taken  ont  of  the  cate- 
gory of  merely  ministerial  measures,  and  exhibited  hi  its  true 
light  as  a  great  national  contest,  entered  into  by  the  people  them- 
selves, for  complete  civil  and  religious  freedom. 

Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  had  been  succeeded  in  1810  in  the 
secretaryship  by  his  brother,  Mr.  Wellesley  Pole,  .who  chiefly 
signalized  his  administration  by  a  circular  against  conventions, 
and  the  prosecution  of  Sheridan  and  Kirwan,  in  1811.  He  was 
in  turn  succeeded  by  a  much  more  able  and  memorable  person— 
Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  names  of  Peel  and  Wel- 
lington come  thus  into  juxtaposition  in  Irish  politics  in  1812,  aa 
they  wiT  be  found  in  juxtaposition  on  the  some  subject  twenty 
and  thirty  years  later. 

Early  in  the  session  of  1812,  Mr.  Perceval,  the  prereier,  had 
been  assassinated  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons,  by 
Bellingham,  and  a  new  political  crisis  was  precipitated  on  the 
country.  In  the  government  which  followed,  Lord  Liverpool 
became  the  chief,  with  Castlereagh  and  Canning  as  members  of 
hia  administration.  In  the  general  election  which  followed,  Mr. 
Gra'.tan  wns  n«nin  retimed  for  Dublin,  and  Mr  Plunkett  WM 
fleeted  for  Trinity  College,  but  Mr.  Curran  was  defeated  at  Newnr, 


POPULAR    HI8TORH    OF   IRELAWD.  766 

Abd  Mr.  Christopher  Hely  Hutchineon,  the  liberal  candidate,  at 
Cork.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  tLe  result  was  favorable  to  the 
Catholic  cause,  and  the  question  was  certain  to  have  several  ad- 
ditional Irish  supporters  in  the  new  House  of  Commons. 

In  the  administrative  changes  that  followed,  Mr.  Peel,  thongh 
only  in  his  twenty-fourth  year,  was  appointed  to  the  important 
post  of  Chief  Secretary.  The  son  of  the  first  baronet  of  the 
name — this  youthful  statesman  had  first  been  elected  for  Cashel, 
almost  as  soon  as  he  came  of  age,  in  1809.  He  continued  Chief 
Secretary  for  six  years,  from  the  twenty-fourth  to  the  thirtieth 
year  of  his  age.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons almost  as  soon  as  he  entered  it,  and  the  predictions  of  his 
future  premiership  were  not,  even  then,  confined  to  members  of 
his  own  family.  No  English  statesman,  since  the  death  of  Wil- 
liam Pitt,  has  wielded  so  great  a  power  in  Irish  affairs  as  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  and  it  is,  therefore,  important  to  consider,  under 
what  influence,  and  by  what  maxims  he  regulated  his  public  con- 
duct during  the  time  he  filled  the  most  important  administrative 
office  in  that  country. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  brought  to  the  Irish  government,  notwithstand- 
his  Oxford  education  and  the  advantages  of  foreign  travel  which 
he  had  enjoyed,  prejudices  the  most  illiberal,  on  the  subject  of  all 
others  on  which  a  statesman  should  be  most  free  from  prejudice 
— religion.  An  anti-Catholic  of  the  school  of  Mr.  Perceval  and 
Lord  Eldon,  he  at  once  constituted  himself  the  principal  oppo- 
nent of  Grattan's  annual  motion  in  favor  of  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion. That  older  men,  born  in  the  evil  tune,  should  be  bigots  and 
defenders  of  the  Penal  Code,  was  hardly  wonderful,  but  a  young 
statesman,  exhibiting  at  that  late  day,  such  studied  and  active 
hostility  to  so  large  a  body  of  his  fellow  subjects,  naturally  drew 
upon  his  head  the  execrations  of  all  those  whose  enfranchisement 
he  so  stubbornly  resisted.  Even  his  great  abilities  were  most 
•bsurdly  denied,  under  this  passionate  feeling  of  wrong  and  in- 
justice. His  Constabulary  and  his  Stipendiary  Magistracy  were 
resisted,  ridiculed  and  denounced,  as  outrages  on  the  liberty  of 
the  subject,  and  assaults  on  the  independence  of  the  bench.  Tha 
term  Peeler  became  synonymous  with  spy,  informer  and  traitor, 
»iul  thw  Chief  Secretary  was  detested  not  only  for  the  illiberal 


766  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 

sentiments  be  had  expressed,  but  for  tbe  machinery  of  order  h« 
bad  established.  After  half  a  century's  experience,  we  may  safely 
say,  that  the  Irish  Constabulary  have  shown  themselves  to  be 
a  most  valuable  po  ice,  and  as  little  deserving  of  popular  ill- will 
AS  any  such  body  can  ever  expect  to  be,  but  they  were  judged 
very  differently  during  the  secretaryship  of  their  founder ;  for,  at 
that  time,  being  new  and  intrusive,  they  may,  no  doubt,  have  de- 
served many  of  the  hard  and  bitter  things  which  were  generally 
Sinid  of  them. 

The  first  Session  of  the  new  Parliament  in  the  year  1813 — the 
last  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  viceroyalty — was  remarkable  for 
the  most  important  debate  which  had  yet  arisen  on  the  Catholic 
question.  In  the  previous  year,  a  motion  of  Canning's,  in 
favor  of  "  a  final  and  conciliatory  adjustment,"  which  was  carried 
by  an  unexpected  majority  of  235  to  106,  encouraged  Grattan  to 
prepare  a  detailed  Emancipation  Bill,  instead  of  making  his  usual 
annual  motion  of  referring  the  Catholic  petitions  to  the  consider- 
ation of  the  Committee.  This  bill  recited  the  establishment  of 
the  Protestant  succession  to  the  crown,  and  the  establishment  of 
tl»e  Protestant  religion  in  the  State.  It  then  proceeded  to  pro- 
vide that  Roman  Catholics  might  sit  and  vote  in  Parliament; 
might  hold  all  offices,  civil  and  military,  except  the  offices  of 
Chancellor  or  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  in  England,  or  Lord 
Lieutenant,  Lord  Deputy,  or  Chancellor  of  Ireland  ;  another  sec- 
tion threw  open  to  Roman  Catholics  all  lay  corporations,  while  • 
proviso  excluded  them  either  from  holding  or  bestowing  benefices 
in  the  Established  Church.  Such  was  the  Emancipation  Act  of 
1813,  proposed  by  Grattan;  an  act  far  less  comprehensive  than 
that  introduced  by  the  same  statesman  in  1795,  into  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland,  but  still,  in  many  of  its  provisions,  a  long  stride 
in  advance. 

Restricted  and  conditioned  as  this  measure  was,  it  still  did  not 
me*t  the  objections  of  the  opponents  of  the  question,  in  giving 
tne  crown  a  Veto  in  the  appointment  of  the  bishops.  Sir  John 
Heppesley's  pernicious  suggestion — reviving  a  very  old  traditional 
policy — was  embodied  by  Canning  in  one  set  of  amendments,  and 
by  Castlereagh  in  another.  Canning's  amendments,  as  summarised 
by  the  eminent  Catholic  jurist,  Charles  Butler,  were  to  this  effect 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND.  767 

*  He  first  appointed  a  certain  number  of  Commissioners,  who 
irere  to  profess  the  Catholic  religion,  and  to  be  lay  peers  of  Great 
Britain  or  Scotland,  possessing  a  freehold  estate  of  one  them- 
sand  pounds  a  year ;  to  be  filled  up,  from  time  to  tune,  by  his 
majesty,  his  heirs,  or  successors.  The  Commissioners  were  to 
take  an  oath  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  office,  and  the 
observance  of  secrecy  in  all  matters  not  thereby  required  to  be 
disclosed,  with  power  to  appoint  a  Secretary  with  salary  (pro- 
posed  to  be  five  hundred  pounds  a  year),  payable  out  of  the  con- 
solidated  fund.  The  Secretary  was  to  take  an  oath  similar  to 
that  of  the  Commissioners. 

"  It  was  then  provided,  that  every  person  elected  to  the  dis 
charge  of  Roman  Catholic  episcopal  functions  in  Great  Britain  01 
Scotland  should,  previously  to  the  discharge  of  his  office,  notify 
his  then  election  to  the  Secretary ;  that  the  Secretary  should 
notify  it  to  the  Commissioners,  and  they  to  the  Privy  Council, 
with  a  certificate  '  that  they  did  not  know  or  believe  any  thing 
of  the  person  nominated,  which  tended  to  impeach  his  loyalty  or 
peaceable  conduct ;'  unless  they  had  knowledge  of  the  contrary, 
in  which  case  they  should  refuse  their  certificate.  Persons  ob- 
taining such  a  certificate  were  rendered  capable  of  exercising 
episcopal  functions  within  the  United  Kingdom;  if  they  exer- 
cised them  without  a  certificate,  they  were  to  be  considered  guilty 
of  a  misdemeanor,  and  liable  to  be  sent  out  of  the  kingdom. 

"  Similar  provisions  respecting  Ireland  were  then  introduced." 

"  The  second  set  of  clauses,"  says  Mr.  Butler,  "  was  suggested 
by  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  provided  that  the  commissioners  under 
the  preceding  clauses — with  the  addition,  as  to  Great  Britain,  of 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  or  Lord  Keeper,  or  first  commissioner  of  th« 
Great  Seal  for  the  time  being,  and  of  one  of  his  majesty's  princi 
pal  Secretaries  of  State,  being  a  Protestant,  or  such  other  Pro 
testant  member  of  his  Privy  Council  as  his  majesty  should  appoint 
— and  with  a  similar  addition  in  respect  to  Ireland — and  with  the 
farther  addition,  as  to  Great  Britain,  of  the  person  then  exercis- 
ing episcopal  functions  among  the  Catholics  in  London — and,  in 
respect  to  Ireland,  of  the  titular  Roman  Catholic  Archbishops  of 
Armagh  and  Dublin, — should  be  Commissioners  for  the  purpose* 
thereinafter  mentioned. 


768  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

"  The  Commissioners  thus  appointed  were  to  take  an  oath  fal 
the  discharge  of  their  office,  and  observance  of  secrecy,  similar 
to  the  former,  and  employ  the  same  Secretary,  and  three  of  them 
were  to  form  a  quorum. 

"  The  bill  then  provided,  that  subjects  of  his  majesty,  receiv- 
ing any  bull,  dispensation,  or  other  instrument,  from  the  see  of 
Kome,  or  any  person  in  foreign  parts,  acting  under  the  authority 
of  that  see,  should,  within  six  weeks,  send  a  copy  of  it,  signed 
with  his  name,  to  the  secretary  of  the  Commissioners,  who  should 
transmit  the  same  to  them. 

"  But  with  a  proviso,  that  if  the  person  receiving  the  same 
should  deliver  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Commission,  within  the 
time  before  prescribed,  a  writing  under  his  hand,  certifying  the 
fact  of  his  having  received  such  a  bull,  dispensation,  or  other  in- 
strument, and  accompanying  his  certificate  with  an  oath,  declar- 
ing that '  it  related,  wholly  and  exclusively,  to  spiritual  concerns, 
and  that  it  did  not  contain,  or  refer  to,  any  matter  or  thing  which 
did  or  could,  directly  or  indirectly,  affect  or  interfere  with  the 
duty  and  aUegiance  which  he  owed  to  his  majesty's  sacred  per- 
son uiid  government,  or  with  the  temporal,  civil,  or  social  rights, 
properties,  or  duties  of  any  other  of  his  majesty's  subjects,  then 
the  Commissioners  were,  in  their  discretion,  to  receive  such  cer- 
tificate and  oath,  in  lieu  of  the  copy  of  the  bull,  dispensation,  or 
other  instrument. 

"  Persons  conforming  to  these  provisions  were  to  be  exempted 
from  nil  pains  and  penalties,  to  which  they  would  be  liable  under 
the  existing  statutes ;  otherwise,  they  were  to  be  deemed  guilty 
of  a  high  misdemeanor ;  and  in  lieu  of  the  pains  and  penalties, 
under  the  former  statutes,  be  liable  to  be  sent  out  of  the  king- 
dom. 

"The  third  set  of  clauses  provided  that,  within  a  time  to  be 
specified  the  Commissioners  were  to  meet  and  appoint  their  Sec- 
retary, an;!  give  notice  of  it  to  his  majesty's  principal  Secretaries 
of  State  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  and  the  provisions  of  the 
act  were  to  be  in  force  from  that  time." 

On  the  second  reading,  in  May,  the  Committee  of  Parliament, 
on  motion  of  the  Spnikor,  then  on  the  floor,  struck  out  the  clans* 
enabling  Catholics  "  to  ait  and  vote  in  either  house  of  Parliament," 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  709 

by  a  majority  of  four  votes:  251  against  247.  Mr.  Ponsonbj 
immediately  rose,  and,  observing  that,  as  "  the  bill  without  the 
clause,"  was  unworthy  both  of  the  Catholics  and  its  authors,  h3 
moved  the  chairman  do  leave  the  chair.  The  comnattee  rose, 
without  a  division,  and  the  Emancipation  Bill  of  1813  was  aban- 
doned. 

Unhappily,  the  contest  in  relation  to  the  Veto,  which  had 
originated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  extended  to  the  Catho- 
lic body  at  large.  Several  of  the  noblemen,  members  of  the 
board,  were  not  averse  to  granting  some  such  power  as  was 
claimed  to  the  crown ;  some  of  the  professional  class,  more 
anxious  to  be  emancipated  than  particular  as  to  the  means, 
favored  the  ^aine  view.  The  bishops  at  the  time  of  the  Union, 
were  known  to  have  entertained  the  idea,  and  Sir  John  Hippesley 
had  published  their  letters,  which  certainly  did  not  discourage 
his  proposal.  But  the  second  order  of  the  clergy,  the  immense 
majority  of  the  laity,  and  all  the  new  prelates,  called  to  preside 
over  vacant  sees,  in  the  first  decade  of  the  century,  were  strongly 
opposed  to  any  such  connexion  with  the  head  of  the  State.  Of 
this  party,  Mr.  O'Connell  was  the  uncompromising  organ,  and, 
perhaps,  it  was  his  course  on  this  very  subject  of  the  Veto,  more 
than  anything  else,  which  established  his  pretensions  to  be  con- 
sidered the  leader  of  the  Catholic  body.  Under  the  prompting 
of  the  majority,  the  Catholic  prelates  met  and  passed  a  resolution 
declaring  that  they  could  not  accept  the  bill  of  1813  as  a  satisfao. 
tory  settlement.  This  resolution  thev  formally  communicated  tr 
the  Catholic  Board,  who  voted  them,  on  O'Connell's  motion,  en- 
thusiastic thanks.  The  minority  of  the  Board  were  silent  rather 
than  satisfied,  and  their  dissatisfaction  was  shown  rather  by  theii 
absence  from  the  Board  meetings  than  by  open  opposition. 

Mr.  O'Connell's  position,  from  this  period  forward,  may  be  best 
understood  from  the  tone  in  which  he  was  spoken  of  in  the  de 
bates  of  parliament.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session  of  1815, 
we  find  the  chief  secretary  (Mr.  Peel)  stating  that  he  "  possesses 
more  influence  than  any  other  person  "  with  the  Irish  Catholics, 
and  that  no  meeting  of  that  body  was  considered  complete  unlesi 
•  vote  of  thanks  to  Mr.  O'Connell  was  among  the  resolutions* 
65 


770  POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRILAVD. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

O'COXNELL'S  LEADERSHIP — 1813  TO  1821. 

WHILE  the  Veto  controversy  was  carried  into  the  press  and  thi 
Parliamentary  debates,  the  extraordinary  events  of  the  last  yeari 
of  Napoleon's  reign  became  of  such  extreme  interest  as  to  cast 
into  the  shade  all  questions  of  domestic  policy.  The  parliamen- 
tary fortunes  of  the  Catholic  question  varied  with  the  fortunes  of 
the  war,  and  the  remoteness  of  external  danger.  Thus,  in  1815, 
Sir  Henry  Parnell's  motion  for  a  committee  was  rejected  by  a 
majority  of  228  to  147  ;  in  1816,  on  Mr.  Grattan's  similar  motion, 
the  vote  was  172  to  141;  in  1817,  Mr.  Grattan  was  again  defeated 
by  245  to  221 ;  in  this  session  an  act  exempting  officers  in  the 
army  and  navy  from  forswearing  Transubstantiation  passed  and 
became  law.  The  internal  condition  of  the  Catholic  body,  both 
in  England  and  Ireland,  during  all  those  years,  was  far  from  en- 
viable. In  England  there  were  Cisalpine  and  Ultramontane  fac- 
tions ;  in  Ireland,  Vetoista  and  anti-Vetoisis.  The  learned  and 
amiable  Charles  Butler — among  jurists,  the  ornament  of  hia  order, 
was  fiercely  opposed  to  the  no  less  learned  Dr.  Milner,  author  of 
"  The  End  of  Controversy,"  and  "  Letters  to  a  Prebendary."  In 
Ireland,  a  very  young  barrister,  who  had  hardly  seen  the  second 
anniversary  of  his  majority,  electrified  the  aggregate  meetings 
with  a  new  Franco-Irish  order  of  eloquence,  naturally  enough 
employed  in  the  maintenance  of  Galilean  ideas  of  church  gov- 
ernment. This  was  Richard  Lalor  Shiel,  the  author  of  two  or 
three  successful  tragedies,  and  the  man,  next  to  O'Connell,  who 
wielded  the  largest  tribunitian  power  over  the  Irish  populace 
during  tin  whole  of  the  subsequent  agitation.  Educated  at 
Stoneyhurst,  he  imbibed  from  refugee  professors  French  idioms 
»•  "1  a  French  standard  of  taste,  while,  strangely  enough,  O'Connell, 
tu  whom  he  was  at  first  opposed,  and  of  wlom  he  became  after- 
wards the  fir.-t  lieutenant,  educated  in  France  by  British  refugees, 
•••.quired  the  cumbrous  English  style  of  the  Douay  Bible  and  the 
Bheims  Testament  The  contrast  between  the  two  men  was 
every  way  extreme ;  physically,  mentally  and  politically ;  but  it 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  771 

IB  pleasant  to  know,  that  their  differences  never  degenerated  into 
distrust,  envy  or  malice;  that,  in  fact,  Daniel  O'Connell  had 
throughout  all  his  after  life  no  more  steadfast  personal  friend 
than  Richard  Lalor  Shiel. 

In  the  progress  of  the  Catholic  agitation,  the  next  memorable 
incident  was  O'Connell's  direct  attack  on  the  Prince  Regent 
That  powerful  personage,  the  de  facto  sovereign  of  the  realm,  had 
long  amused  the  lrk-h  Catholics  with  proruiaas  and  pledges  of 
being  favorable  to  their  cause.  At  an  aggregate  meeting,  in  June, 
1812,  Mr.  O'Connell  maintained  that  there  were  four  distinct 
pledges  of  this  description  in  existence.  1.  One  given  in  1806, 
through  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  then  Lord  Lieutenant,  to  induce  the 
Catholics  to  withhold  their  petitions  for  a  time.  2.  Another 
given  the  same  year  in  the  prince's  name  by  Mr.  Ponsonby,  then 
Chancellor.  3.  A  pledge  given  to  Lord  Kenmare,  in  writing,  when 
at  Cheltenham.  4.  A  verbal  pledge  given  to  Lord  Fingal,  in  the 
presence  of  Lords  Clifford  and  Petre,  and  reduced  to  writing  and 
signed  by  these  three  noblemen,  soon  after  quitting  the  Prince's 
presence.  Over  the  meeting  at  which  this  indictment  was  pre- 
ferred, Lord  Fingal  presided,  and  the  celebrated  "witchery" 
resolutions,  referring  to  the  influence  then  exercised  on  the  prince 
by  Lady  Hertford,  were  proposed  by  his  lordship's  son,  Lord 
Killeen.  It  may,  therefore,  be  fairly  assumed,  that  the  existence 
of  the  fourth  pledge  was  proved,  the  first  and  second  were  never 
denied,  and  as  to  the  third — that  given  to  Lord  Kenmare — the 
only  correction  ever  made  was,  that  the  Prince's  message  was 
delivered  verbally,  by  his  Private  Secretary,  Colonel  McMahon, 
and  not  in  writing.  Lord  Kenmare,  who  died  in  the  autumn  of 
1812,  could  not  be  induced,  from  a  mofive  of  delicacy,  to  reduce 
his  recollection  of  this  message  to  writing,  but  he  never  denied 
that  he  had  received  it,  and  O'Connell,  therefore,  during  the  fol 
lowing  years,  always  held  the  Prince  accountable  for  this,  as  for 
hia  other  promises.  Much  difference  of  opinion  arose  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  attacking  a  person  in  the  position  of  the  Prince ;  but 
O'Connell,  fully  persuaded  of  the  utter  worthlessness  of  the  de- 
clarations made  m  that  quarter,  decided  for  himself  that  the  bold 
course  was  the  wise  course.  The  effect  already  was  various.  The 
English  Whigs,  the  Prince's  early  and  constant  friends,  who  had 


Y2  roruLAR  HIBTOBY  or  IBKLAKD. 

followed  him  to  lengths  that  honor  could  hardly  sanction,  and  wb« 
had  experienced  his  hollow-heartedness  when  lately  called  to 
govern  during  his  father's  illness ;  they,  of  course,  were  not  sorry 
to  see  him  held  np  to  odium  in  Ireland,  as  a  dishonored  gentle- 
man and  a  fair  e  friend.  The  Irish  Whigs,  of  whom  Lord  Moir» 
and  Mr.  Ponsonby  were  the  leaders,  and  to  whom  Mr.  Grattan 
might  be  said  to  be  attached  rather  than  to  belong,  saw  the  rup- 
ture with  regret,  but  considered  it  inevitable.  Among  "  the 
Prince's  friends"  the  attacks  upon  him  in  the  Dublin  meetings 
were  regarded  as  little  short  of  treason ;  while  by  himself,  it  is 
well  known  the  "witchery"  resolutions  of  1812  were  Beither  for- 
gotten nor  forgiven. 

The  political  position  of  the  Holy  See,  at  this  period  was  such 
ua  to  induce  and  enable  an  indirect  English  influence  to  be  exer- 
cised, through  that  channel,  upon  the  Irish  Catholic  movement. 
Pope  Pius  VII.,  a  prisoner  in  France,  had  delegated  to  several 
persons  at  Rome  certain  vicarious  powers,  to  be  exercised  in  his 
name,  in  case  of  necessity ;  of  these,  more  than  one  had  followed 
him  into  exile,  so  that  the  position  of  his  representative  devolved 
at  length  upon  Monsignor  Quarrantotti,  who,  early  in  1 814,  addres- 
sed a  rescript  to  Dr.  Poynter,  vicar-apostolic  of  the  London  district, 
commendatory  of  the  Bill  of  1813,  including  the  Veto,  and  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commission  proposed  by  Canning  and  Castlereagh. 
Apninst  those  dangerous  concessions,  as  they  considered  them,  the 
Irish  Catholics  dispatched  their  remonstrances  to  Rome,  through 
the  agency  of  the  celebrated  W«ford  FransSscan,  Father  Richard 
Hayes ;  but  this  clergyman,  having  spoken  with  too  great  free. 
d< H ii,  was  arrested,-  and  suffered  several  months'  confinement  in  the 
Eternal  City.  A  subsequent  embassy  of  Dr.  Murray,  coadjutor 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  on  behalf  of  his  brother  prelates, 
was  attended  with  no  greater  advantage,  though  the  envoy  him- 
•eh  was  more  properly  treated.  On  his  return  to  Ireland,  at  a 
meeting  held  to  hear  his  report,  several  strong  resolutions  were 
unanimously  adopted,  of  which  the  spirit  may  be  judged  from 
the  following — the  concluding  one  of  the  series—"  Though  we 
sincerely  venerate  the  supreme  pontiff  as  visible  head  of  the 
church,  we  do  not  conceive  that  our  apprehensions  for  the  safety 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in  Ireland  can  or  ought  to  be  rr 


POPULAR    HISXOKY    Or   IRELAND.  778 

tuoved  by  any  determination  of  His  Holiness,  adopted,  or  intended 
to  be  adopted,  not  only  without  our  concurrence,  but  in  direct 
opposition  to  our  repeated  resolutions  and  the  Tery  energetic 
memorial  presented  on  our  behalf,  and  so  ably  supported  by 
our  deputy,  the  Most  Reverend  Dr.  Murray;  who,  in  that 
quality,  was  more  competent  to  inform  His  Holiness  of  the  real 
state  and  interests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in  Ireland  than 
hny  other  with  whom  he  ia  said  to  have  consulted." 

The  resolutions  were  transmitted  to  Rome,  signed  by  the  two 
archbishops  present,  by  Dr.  Everard,  the  coadjutor  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Cashel,  by  Dr.  Murray,  the  coadjutor  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  by  the  Bishops  of  Meath,  Cloyne,  Clonfert,  Kerry,  Water- 
ford,  Derry,  Achonry,  Killala,  Killaloe,  Kilmore,  Ferns,  Limerick, 
Elphin,  Cork,  Down  and  Connor,  Ossory,  Raphoe,  Clogher,  Dro- 
more,  Kildare  and  Leighlin,  Ardagh,  and  the  Warden  of  Galway. 
Dr.  Murray,  and  Dr.  Murphy,  Bishop  of  Cork,  were  commis- 
sioned to  carry  this  new  remonstrance  to  Rome,  and  the  greatest 
anxiety  was  felt  for  the  result  of  their  mission. 

A  strange  result  of  this  new  embroglio  in  the  Catholic  cause 
was,  that  it  put  the  people  on  the  defensive  for  their  religious 
liberties,  not  so  much  against  England  as  against  Rome.  The 
unlucky  Italian  Monsignor  who  had  volunteered  hie  sanction  of 
the  Veto,  fared  scarcely  better  at  the  popular  gatherings  than  Lord 
Castlereagh,  or  Mr.  Peel.  "  Monsieur  Forty  eight,"  as  he  was 
nicknamed  in  reference  to  some  strange  story  of  his  ancestor  tak- 
ing his  name  from  a  lucky  lottery  ticket  of  that  number,  was 
declared  to  be  no  better  than  a  common  Orangeman,  and  if  the 
bitter  denunciations  uttered  against  him,  on  the  Liffey  and  the 
Shannon,  had  only  been  translated  into  Italian,  the  courtly  Pre- 
late must  have  been  exceedingly  amazed  at  the  democratic  fury 
of  a  Catholic  population,  as  orthodox  as  himself,  but  much  more 
jealous  of  state  interference  with  things  spiritual.  The  second 
order  of  the  clergy  were  hardly  behind  the  laity,  in  the  fervor 
of  their  opposition  to  the  rescript  of  1814.  Their  entire  body, 
secular  and  regular,  residing  in  and  about  Dublin,  published  • 
very  strong  protest  against  it,  headed  by  Dr.  Blake,  after  wardi 
Bishop  of  Dromore,  in  which  it  was  denounced  as  "  pregnant 
with  mischief"  and  entirely  "non-obligatory  upon  the  Catholic 
65* 


774  POPULAR   flISTOBT   OF   IEKLAKD. 

Church  in  Ireland."  The  several  ecclesiastical  provinces  followed 
up  these  declarations  with  a  surprising  unanimity,  and  although 
a  Vetoistical  address  to  Ills  Holiness  was  dispatched  by  the  Cis- 
alpine club  in  England,  the  Irish  ideas  of  Church  government 
triumphed  at  Rome.  Drs.  Murray  and  Milner  were  received  with 
his  habitual  kindness  by  Pius  VII.;  the  illustrious  Cardinal  Gon- 
salvi  was  appointed  by  the  Pope  to  draw  up  an  explanatory  re- 
script, and  Monsignor  Quarrantotti  was  removed  from  his  official 
position.  The  firmness  manifested  at  that  critical  period  by  the 
Irish  church  has  since  been  acknowledged  with  many  encomiums 
by  all  the  successors  of  Pope  Pius  VIL 

The  Irish  government,  under  the  new  Viceroy,  Lord  Whitwortl 
(the  former  ambassador  to  Napoleon),  conceiving  that  the  time 
had  come,  in  the  summer  of  1814,  to  suppress  the  Catholic  Board, 
a  proclamation  forbidding  his  majesty's  subjects  to  attend  future 
meetings  of  that  body  issued  from  Dublin  Castle,  on  the  3d  of 
June.  The  leaders  of  the  body,  after  consultation  at  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell's  residence,  decided  to  bow  to  this  proclamation  and  to  meet 
no  more  as  a  Board  ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  them,  in  the  follow- 
ing winter,  from  holding  a  new  series  of  Aggregate  meetings,  far 
more  formidable,  in  some  respects,  than  the  deliberative  meetings 
which  had  been  suppressed.  In  the  vigorous  and  somewhat  ag- 
gressive tone  taken  at  these  meetings,  Lord  Fingal,  the  chief  of 
the  Cutliolic  peerage,  did  not  concur,  and  he  accordingly  with- 
drew for  some  years  from  the  agitation,  Mr.  Sheil,  the  Bellews, 
Mr.  Ball,  Mr.  Wyse  of  Waterford,  and  a  few  others,  following  hi* 
example.  With  O'Connell  remained  the  O'Connor  Don,  Messrs. 
Finlay  and  Lidwell  (Protestants),  Purcell  O'Gorman,  and  other 
popular  persons.  But  the  cause  sustained  a  heavy  blow  in  the 
temporary  retirement  of  Lord  Fingal  and  his  friends,  and  an 
attempt  to  form  a  "  Catholic  Association,"  in  1815,  without  their 
cooperation,  signally  failed. 

During  the  next  five  years,  the  fortunes  of  the  great  Irish 
question  fluctuated  with  the  exigencies  of  Imperial  parties.  The 
second  American  war  had  closed,  if  not  gloriously,  at  least  with- 
out considerable  loss  to  England ;  Napoleon  had  exchanged  Elba 
tor  St.  Helena ;  Wellington  was  the  Achilles  of  the  Empire,  and 
CMtlereagh  its  Ulysses.  Yet  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  thoe« 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF   IRELAHD. 

free  Islanders,  the  danger  and  pressure  of  foreign  war  removed, 
to  remain  always  indifferent  to  the  two  great  questions  of  domes- 
tic policy — Catholic  Emancipation  and  Parliamentary  Reform. 
In  the  session  of  1816,  a  motion  of  Sir  John  Newport's  to  inquire 
into  the  state  of  Ireland,  was  successfully  resisted  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  but  the  condition  and  state  of  public  feeling  in  England 
could  not  be  as  well  ignored  by  a  Parliament  sitting  in  London. 
In  returning  from  the  opening  of  the  Houses  in  January  1817, 
the  Regent  was  hooted  in  the  street,  and  his  carriage  riddled  with 
stones.  A  reward  of  £1,000,  issued  for  the  apprehension  of  the 
ringleaders,  only  gave  additional  edat  to  the  fact,  without  leading 
to  the  apprehension  of  the  assailants. 

The  personal  unpopularity  of  the  Regent  seems  to  have  in- 
creased, in  proportion  as  death  removed  from  him  all  those  who 
Btood  nearest  to  the  throne.  In  November,  1817,  his  oldest  child, 
the  Princess  Charlotte,  married  to  Leopold,  since  King  of  Belgium, 
died  in  childbed ;  in  1818,  the  aged  Queen  Charlotte  died  ;  in  Janu- 
ary, 1820,  the  old  king  in  the  eighty-second  year  of  his  age,  departed 
this  life.  Immediately  afterwards  the  former  Princess  of  Wales, 
long  separated  from  her  profligate  husband,  returned  from  the 
Continent  to  claim  her  rightful  position  as  Queen  Consort  The 
disgraceful  accusations  brought  against  her,  the  trial  before  the 
House  of  Lords  which  followed,  the  courage  and  eloquence  of  her 
counsel,  Brougham  and  Denman,  the  eagerness  with  which  the 
people  made  her  cause  their  own,  are  all  well  remembered  events, 
and  all  beside  the  purpose  of  this  history.  The  unfortunate  lady 
died  after  a  short  illness,  on  the  7th  of  August,  1821  ;  the  sam« 
month  in  which  his  Majesty — George  IV. — departed  on  that  Irish 
Journey,  so  satirized  in  the  undying  verse  of  Moore  and  Byron. 

Two  other  deaths,  far  more  affecting  than  any  among  the  mor- 
talities of  royalty,  marked  the  period  at  which  we  have  arrived. 
These  were  the  death  of  Curran  in  1817,  and  the  death  of  Grattan, 
in  1820. 

Curran,  after  his  failure  to  be  returned  for  Newry,  in  1812,  had 
never  again  attempted  public  life.  He  remained  in  his  office  of 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  but  his  health  began  to  fail  sensibly.  Dur- 
ing the  summers  of  1816  and  '17,  he  sought  for  recreation  in 
Scotland,  England  and  France,  but  the  charm  which  travel  could 


V76  HIBTO&Y   OF   IRELAND. 

Dot  give — the  charm  of  a  cheerful  spirit — was  wanting.  In  Octo 
b«r,  1817,  his  friend,  Charles  Phillips,  was  suddenly  called  to  hl« 
bed  «ide  at  Brompton,  near  London,  and  found  him  with  one  side 
of  his  face  and  body  paralyzed  cold.  "  And  this  was  all,"  says 
his  friend,  "  that  remained  of  Cnrran — the  light  of  society — the 
glory  of  the  forum — the  Fabricius  of  the  senate — the  idol  of  hia 
country."  Yes  I  even  to  less  than  this,  was  he  soon  to  sink.  On 
the  evening  of  the  14th  of  October,  he  expired,  in  the  68th  year 
of  his  age,  leaving  a  public  reputation  as  free  from  blemish  as 
ever  did  any  man  who  had  acted  a  leading  part,  in  times  like 
those  through  which  he  had  passed.  He  was  interred  in  London, 
but  twenty  years  afterwards,  the  committee  of  the  Glasnevin 
Cemetery,  near  Dublin,  obtained  permission  of  his  representa- 
tives to  remove  his  ashes  to  their  grounds,  where  they  now 
finally  repose.  A  tomb  modeled  from  the  tomb  of  Scipio  covers 
the  grave,  bearing  the  simple  but  sufficient  inscription — CURRAN. 
Thus  was  fulfilled  the  words  he  had  uttered  long  before — "  The 
last  duties  will  be  paid  by  that  country  on  which  they  are  de- 
volved ;  nor  will  it  be  for  charity  that  a  little  earth  will  be  given 
to  my  bones.  Tenderly  will  those  duties  be  paid,  as  the  debt  of 
well-earned  affection,  and  of  gratitude  not  ashamed  of  her  tears  " 
Grattan's  last  days  were  characteristic  of  his  whole  life.  As 
the  session  of  1820  progressed,  though  suffering  from  his  last 
struggle  with  disease,  he  was  stirred  by  an  irresistible  desire  to 
make  his  way  to  London,  and  present  once  more  the  petition  of 
the  Catholics.  Since  the  defeat  of  his  Relief  Bill  of  1813,  there 
had  been  some  estrangement  between  him  and  the  more  advanced 
section  of  the  agitators,  headed  by  O'Connell,  This  lie  was 
nnxious,  perhaps,  to  heal  or  to  overcome.  Ho  thought,  moreover, 
that  even  if  he  should  die  in  the  effort,  it  would  be,  as  he  said 
himself,  "  a  good  end."  Amid — 

"  The  trees  which  a  nation  bad  given,  and  which  bowed 
As  if  each  brought  a  new  ciric  crown  to  his  head," 

be  consulted  with  the  Catholic  delegates  early  in  May.  O'Connell 
was  the  spokesman,  and  the  scene  may  yet  be  rendered  Immortal  by 
•cm?  great  national  artint.  All  present  felt  thnt  the  a:r*d  patriot 
was  dying,  bnt  still  he  would  go  once  more  to  London,  to  fall,  as  h« 


frOPULAK    HIBTOBY    OF   UIELAH0.  777 

Mid,  "  at  Ms  post."  In  leaving  Ireland  he  gave  to  his  oldest 
friends  directions  for  his  funeral — that  he  might  be  buried  in  th« 
little  churchyard  of  Moyanna,  on  the  estate  the  people  gave  lina 
in  1782 !  He  reached  London,  by  slow  stages,  at  the  end  of 
May,  and  proposed  to  be  in  his  place  in  the  House  on  the  4th  of 
June.  But  this  gratification  was  not  permitted  him:  on  the 
morning  of  the  4th,  at  six  o'clock,  he  called  his  son  to  his  bed- 
side, and  ordered  him  to  bring  him  a  paper  containing  his  hist 
political  opinions.  "  Add  to  it,"  he  said,  with  all  his  old  love  of 
antithesis,  "that  I  die  with  a  love  of  liberty  in  my  heart,  and 
this  declaration  in  favor  of  my  country,  in  my  hand." 

So  worthily  ended  the  mortal  career  of  Henry  Grattan.  He 
was  interred  by  the  side  of  his  old  friend,  Charles  James  Fox,  in 
Westminster  Abbey ;  the  mourners  included  the  highest  imperial 
statesmen,  and  the  Catholic  orphan  children ;  his  eulogium  waa 
pronounced  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  William  Conyngham 
Plunkett,  and  in  the  Irish  capital  by  Daniel  O'ConnelL 


CHAPTER  V. 

RETROSPECT   OF   THE   STATE   OF   RELIGION   AND    LEARNING  DURING 
THE    REIGN    OF   GEOEGE    in. 

BEFORE  relating  the  decisive  events  in  the  contest  for  Catholio 
emancipation,  which  marked  the  reign  of  George  IV.,  we  may  be 
permitted  to  cast  a  glance  backward  over  the  religious  and  secu- 
lar state  of  Ireland,  during  the  sixty  years'  reign  of  George  III. 

The  relative  position  of  the  great  religious  denomination! 
underwent  a  slow  but  important  revolution  during  this  long  reign. 
In  the  last  days  of  George  II.,  a  Chief-Justice  was  bold  enough  to 
declare  that  "  the  laws  did  not  presume  a  Papist  to  exist  in  the 
kingdom ;"  but  under  the  sway  of  his  successor,  though  much 
against  that  successor's  will,  they  advanced  from  one  constito- 
ti'.ial  victory  to  another,  till  they  stood,  in  the  person  of  the 
Earl  Marshal,  on  the  very  steps  of  the  throne.  In  the  town* 


77.8  POrULJLB   HISTORY   OF  IB1LAKO. 

and  cities,  the  Catholic  laity,  once  admitted  to  commerce  and  tk« 
professions,  rose  rapidly  to  wealth  and  honor.  A  Dublin  FupUt 
was  at  the  head  of  the  wine  trade ;  another  was  the  wealthiest 
graziar  in  the  kingdom ;  a  third,  at  Cork,  was  the  largvst  pro- 
vision merchant.  With  wealth  came  social  ambition,  and  the 
Leirs  of  these  enfranchised  merchants  were  by  a  natural  conao 
qacnce  the  judges  and  legislators  of  the  next  generation. 

The  ecclesiastical  organization  of  Ireland,  as  described  in  1800 
by  the  bishops  in  answer  to  queries  of  the  Chief  Secretary,  was 
simple  and  inexpensive.  The  four  archbishops  and  twenty  bishops, 
were  sustained  by  having  certain  parishes  attached  to  their  cathe- 
drals, in  commendam :  other  Catliedraticum  there  seems  to  have  been 
none.  Armagh  had  then  350  parish  priests,  Tuam  206,  Cashel 
314,  and  Dublin  156:  in  all  1126.  The  number  of  curates  or  co- 
adjutors was  at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  parish  priests ;  while 
of  regulars  then  returned  the  number  did  not  exceed  450.  This 
large  body  of  religious — 24  prelates,  nearly  3,000  clergy — exclu- 
sive of  female  religious — were  then,  and  have  ever  since  been, 
sustained  by  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  laity,  paid  onlefly 
at  the  two  great  festivals  of  Christmas  and  Easter,  or  by  cnstom 
ary  offerings  made  at  the  close  of  the  ceremonies  of  marriages, 
baptisms,  and  death.  Though  the  income  of  some  of  the  chnrchea 
was  considerable,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  the  amouut  re 
ceived  barely  sufficed  to  fulfil  the  injunction  of  St.  Patrick  to 
his  disciples,  that  "  the  lamp  should  take  but  that  where*  tth  it 
was  fed." 

The  Presbyterian  clergy,  though  in  some  respecta  mow  de 
pendent  on  their  congregations  than  the  Catholics  were,  did  not 
always,  nor  in  all  cases,  depend  on  the  voluntary  principle  for 
their  maintenance.  The  Irish  Supply  Bill  contained  an  annual 
item  before  the  Union  of  £7,700  for  the  Antrim  synod,  and  some 
other  dissenting  bodies.  The  regium  donum  was  not,  indeed, 
general ;  but  that  it  might  be  made  so,  was  one  of  the  induce- 
uiuiits  held  out  to  many  of  that  clergy  to  secure  their  countenance 
for  the  Legislative  Union. 

The  Established  Church  continued,  of  course,  to  monopolize 
University  honors,  and  to  enjoy  ite  princely  revenues  and  all 
political  advantages.  Trinity  College  continued  annually  to  fans 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  i 

Its  200,000  acres  at  a  rental  .averaging  £100,000  sta.Iing.  ltd 
wealth,  and  the  uses  to  which  it  is  put,  are  thus  described  by  a 
recent  writer:  "Some  of  Trinity's  senior  fellows  enjoy  higher 
incomes  than  cabinet  ministers ;  many  of  her  tutors  have  reve- 
nues above  those  ef  cardinals  ;  and  junior  fellows,  of  a  few  days' 
standing,  frequently  decline  some  of  her  thirty-one  church  livings 
with  benefices  which  would  shame  the  poverty  of  scores  of  con- 
tinental,  not  to  say  Irish,  Catholic  archbishops.  Even  eminent 
judges  hold  her  professorships ;  some  of  her  chairs  are  vacated 
for  the  Episcopal  bench  only ;  and  majors  and  field  officers  would 
acquire  increased  pay  by  being  promoted  to  the  rank  of  head 
porter,  first  menial,  in  Trinity  College.  Apart  from  her  princely 
fellowships  and  professorships,  her  seventy  Foundation,  and  six- 
teen non-Foundation  Scholarships,  her  thirty  Sizarships,  and  her 
fourteen  valuable  Studentships,  she  has  at  her  disposal  an  aggre- 
gate, by  bequests,  benefactions,  and  various  endowments,  of  117 
permanent  exhibitions,  amounting  to  upwards  of  £2,000  per 
annum."  The  splendor  of  the  highest  Protestant  dignitaries  may 
be  inferred  from  what  has  been  said  formerly  of  the  Bishop  of 
Derry,  of  the  Era  of  Independence.  The  state  maintained  by  the 
chief  bishop — Primate  Robinson,  who  ruled  Armagh  from  1765 
to  1795 — is  thus  described  by  Mr.  Cumberland  in  his  Memoirs. 
"  I  accompanied  him,"  says  Cumberland,  "  on  Sunday  forenoon 
to  his  cathedral.  We  went  in  his  chariot  of  six  horses  attended 
by  three  footmen  behind,  whilst  my  wife  and  daughters,  with  Sir 
William  Robinson,  the  primate's  elder  brother,  followed  in  my 
father's  coach,  which  he  lent  me  for  the  journey.  At  our  ap- 
proach the  great  western  door  was  thrown  open,  and  my  friend 
(in  person  one  of  the  finest  men  that  could  be  seen)  entered,  like 
another  Archbishop  Laud,  in  high  prelatical  state,  preceded  by 
his  officers  and  ministers  of  the  church,  conducting  him  in  file* 
to  the  robing  chamber,  and  back  again  to  the  throne."  It  may 
well  be  conceived  with  what  invidious  eyes  the  barely  tolerated 
Papists  of  the  city  of  Saint  Patrick  must  have  looked  on  all  tliia 
pageantry,  and  their  feelings  were  no  doubt  those  in  some  degree 
of  all  their  coreligionists  throughout  the  kingdom. 

The  Iri«»h  Establishment,  during  the  reign  of  George  III,  num 
bered  amr>ng  its  prelates  and  clergy  many  able  and  amiabie  mea 


V80  POPULAR   HI8TORT   OF   IRELAIHJ. 

At  the  period  of  the  Union,  the  two  most  distinguished  were  Dr. 
(XBeirne,  Bishop  of  Heath,  nn  ex-priest,  and  Dr.  Young,  Bi&hop 
of  Clonfert,  a  former  fellow  of  Trinity  College.  As  a  Bibl« 
scholar,  Dr.  Young  ranked  deservedly  high,  but  as  a  variously 
accomplished  writer,  Dr.  O'Beirne  was  the  first  man  of  his  order. 
His  political  papers,  though  occasionally  disfigured  with  the 
bigotry  natural  to  an  apostate,  are  full  of  a  vigorous  sagacity; 
his  contributions  to  general  literature,  such  as  his  paper  on 
Tanixtrif,  in  Vallency's  Collectanea,  show  how  very  much  greater 
things  ptill  he  was  capable  of.  It  is  not  a  little  striking  that  the 
most  eminent  bishop,  as  well  as  the  most  celebrated  Anglican 
preacher  of  that  age,  in  Ireland  (Dean  JDrwan),  should  both  have 
been  ordained  as  Catholic  priests. 

The  national  literature  which  we  have  noted  a  century  earlier,  at 
changing  gradually  its  tongue,  was  now  mainly,  indeed  we  might 
almost  say  solely,  expressed  in  English.  It  is  true  the  songs  of 
"  Carolan  the  Blind,"  were  sung  in  Gaelic  by  the  Longford  fire- 
sides, where  the  author  of  "  the  Deserted  Village "  listened  to 
their  exquisite  melody,  moulding  his  young  ear  to  a  sense  of 
harmony  full  as  exquisite ;  but  the  glory  of  the  Gaelic  muse  was 
past.  He,  too,  unpromising  as  was  his  evterior,  was  to  be  one  of 
the  bright  harbingers  of  another  great  era  of  Hiberno-English 
literature.  When,  within  two  generations,  out  of  the  same  ex- 
ceedingly restricted  class  of  educated  Irishmen  and  women,  we 
count  the  names  of  Goldsmith,  Samuel  Madden,  Arthur  Murphy, 
Henry  Brooke,  Charles  Macklin,  Sheridan,  Burke,  Edmund  Ma- 
lone,  Maria  Edgeworth,  Lady  Morgan,  "Psyche"  Tighe,  and 
Thomas  Moore,  it  is  impossible  not  to  entertain  a  very  high 
op'riion  of  the  mental  resources  of  that  population,  if  only  they 
were  fnirly  wrought  and  kindly  valued  by  the  world. 

Ono  memorable  incident  of  literary  history — the  Ossianic  oat. 
break  of  1760 — aided  powerfully  though  indirectly  in  the  revival 
of  the  study  of  the  ancient  Celtic  history  of  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
Something  was  done  then,  by  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  to  meet 
tha*  Btorm  of  Anglo  Norman  incredulity  and  indignation  ;  much 
more  has  been  done  since,  to  place  the  original  records  of  tha 
Three  Kingdoms  on  a  sound  critical  basis.  The  dogmatism  of 
the  unbelievers  in  the  existence  of  a  genuine  body  of  ancient 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF    IRELAND.  71 

Celtic  literature  has  been  rebuked ;  and  the  folly  of  the  theorist* 
who,  upon  imaginary  grounds,  constructed  pretentious  sy sterna, 
has  been  exposed.  The  exact  originals  of  MacPherson's  oded 
have  not  been  found,  after  a  century  of  research,  and  may  be 
given  up,  as  non-existant ;  but  the  better  opinion  seems  now  to 
be,  by  those  who  have  studied  the  fragments  of  undoubted  antiq- 
uity attributed  to  the  son  of  the  warrior  Fion,  that  whatever  the 
modern  translator  may  have  invented,  he  certainly  did  not  invent 
Ossian. 

To  the  stage,  within  the  same  range  of  time,  Ireland  gave  some 
celebrated  names :  QuSnn,  Barry,  Sheridan,  Mrs.  "Woffington,  Mrs. 
Jordan,  and  Miss  O'Neill ;  and  to  painting,  one  preeminent  name 
— the  eccentric,  honest,  and  original,  James  Barry. 

But  of  all  the  arts,  that  in  which  the  Irish  of  the  Georgian  era 
won  the  highest  and  most  various  triumphs  was  the  art  of  Ora- 
tory. What  is  now  usually  spoken  of  as  "  the  Irish  School  of 
Eloquence,"  may  be  considered  to  have  taken  its  rise  from  the 
growth  of  the  Patriot  party  in  Parliament,  in  the  last  years  of 
George  II.  Every  contemporary  account  agrees  in  placing  its 
first  great  name — Anthony  Malone — on  the  same  level  with  Chat> 
ham  and  Mansfield.  There  were  great  men  before  Malone,  aa 
before  Agamemnon ;  such  aa  Sir  Toby  Butler,  Baron  Rice,  and 
Patrick  Darcy ;  but  he  was  the  first  of  our  later  succession  of 
masters.  After  him  came  Flood  and  John  Hely  Hutchmson 
then  Grattan  and  Curran  ;  then  Plunkett  and  Bushe  ;  then  O'Con- 
nell  and  Shiel.  In  England,  at  the  same  time,  Burke,  Barr6, 
Sheridan,  and  Sir  Phillip  Francis,  upheld  the  reputation  of  Irish 
oratory ;  a  reputation  generously  acknowledged  by  all  parties,  a-» 
it  was  illustrated  in  the  ranks  of  alL  The  Tories,  within  our  own 
recollection,  applauded  as  heartily  the  Irish  wit  and  fervor  of 
Canning,  Croker,  and  North,  as  the  "Whigs  did  the  exhibition  of 
similar  qualities  in  their  Emancipation  allies. 

Nothing  can  be  less  correct,  than  to  pronounce  judgment  on 
the  Irish  School,  either  of  praise  or  blame,  in  sweeping  genera* 
terms.  Though  a  certain  family  resemblance  may  be  traced 
among  its  great  masters,  no  two  of  them  will  be  found  nearly 
alike.  There  are  no  echoes,  no  servile  imitators,  among  them. 
In  vigorous  argumentation  and  severe  simplicity,  Plunkett  re» 
66 


V82  POPULAR    HISTORY   OP   IRELAKft. 

eembled  Flood,  but  the  temperament  of  the  two  men — and  Or* 
tory  is  nearly  as  ranch  a  matter  of  temperament  as  of  intellect— 
was  widely  different  Flood's  movement  was  dramatic,  while 
Plunkett's  was  mathematical.  In  structural  arrangement,  Sheil 
occasionally — very  occasionally — reminds  us  of  Grattnn  ;  but  if 
he  has  not  the  wonderful  condensation  of  thought,  neither  has  ho 
the  frequent  antithetical  abuses  of  that  great  orator.  Burke  and 
Sheridan  are  as  distinguishable  as  any  other  two  of  their  contem- 
poraries ;  Curran  stands  alone ;  O'Connell  never  had  a  mo^el,  and 
never  had  an  imitator  who  rose  above  mimicry.  Every  combin- 
ation of  powers,  every  description  of  excellence,  and  every  variety 
of  style  and  character,  may  be  found  among  the  masterpieces  of 
this  great  school.  Of  their  works  many  will  live  forever.  Most 
of  Burke's,  many  of  Grattan's,  and  one  or  two  of  Curran's  have 
reached  us  in  such  preservation  as  promises  immortality.  Selec- 
tions from  Flood,  Sheridan,  Canning,  Plunkett  and  O'Connell  will 
survive  ;  Sheil  will  be  more  fortunate,  for  he  was  more  artistic, 
and  more  watchful  of  his  own  fame.  His  exquisite  finish  will  do 
for  him,  what  the  higher  efforts  of  men,  indifferent  to  the  grand 
audience  of  posterity,  will  have  forfeited  for  them. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  farther,  that  the  inspiration  of  all  these 
men  was  drawn  from  the  very  hearts  of  the  people,  among  whom 
they  grew.  With  one  or  two  exceptions,  sons  of  humble  peas- 
ants, of  actors,  of  at  most  middle  class  men,  they  were  true, 
through  every  change  of  personal  position,  to  the  general  inter- 
ests of  the  people — to  the  common  weal  From  generous  thoughts 
and  a  lofty  scorn  of  falsehood,  fanaticism  and  tyranny,  they  took 
their  inspiration  ;  and  as  they  were  true  to  human  nature,  so  will 
mankind,  through  successive  ages,  dwell  fondly  on  their  works 
led  guard  'ovingly  their  tomb*. 


POPULAR    BISTORT    OF    IRELAND.  78J 

OHA.PTER  VI. 

.  THE   IRISH    ABROAD,    DURING    THE    REKT.i    OF    GBJR3E   HI. 

THE  fond  tenacity  with  which  the  large  numbers  of  the  Irish 
people  who  have  established  themselves  in  foreign  states  have 
always  clung  to  their  native  country  ;  the  active  sympathy  they 
have  personally  shown  for  their  relatives  at  home ;  the  repeated 
efforts  they  have  made  to  assist  the  Irish  in  Ireland,  in  all  their 
public  undertakings,  requires  that,  as  an  element  in  Q'Connell'a 
final  and  successful  struggle  for  Catholic  Emancipation,  we  should 
take  a  summary  view  of  the  position  of  "  the  Irish  ;;broad." 

While  the  emigrants  of  that  country  to  America,  naturally  pur- 
sued  the  paths  of  peace,  those  who,  from  choice  or  necessity, 
found  their  way  to  the  European  Continent,  were,  with  few  excep- 
tions, employed  mainly  in  two  departments — war  and  diplomacy. 
An  Irish  Abbe,  like  the  celebrated  preacher,  McCarthy — or  an 
Irish  merchant  firm,  such  as  the  house  of  the  same  name  at  Bor 
deaux,  might  be  met  with,  but  most  of  those  who  attained  any 
distinction  did  so  by  the  sword  or  the  pen,  in  the  field  or  the 
cabinet. 

In  France,  under  the  revolutionary  governments  from  '91  to  '99, 
the  Irish  were,  with  their  old-world  notions  of  God  and  the  Devil, 
wholly  out  of  place ;  but  under  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire, 
they  rose  to  many  employments  of  the  second  clr.sn,  and  a  few  of 
the  very  first.  From  the  ranks  of  the  expatriated  of  '98,  Buona- 
parte  promoted  Arthur  O'Connor  and  William  Corbet  to  the  rank 
of  General ;  Ware,  Allen,  Byrne,  the  younger  Tone,  and  Keating 
to  that  of  Colonel.  As  individuals,  the  Emperor  was  certainly  a 
benefactor  to  many  Irishmen  ;  but  as  a  nation,  it  was  one  of  their 
most  foolish  delusions,  to  expect  in  him  a  deliverer.  On  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  the  Irish  officers  who  had  acquired 
distinction  under  Napoleon,  adhered  generally  to  his  fortunes,  and 
tendered  their  resignations  ;  in  their  place,  a  new  group  of  Franco- 
Irish  descendants  of  the  old  Brigades-men,  began  to  show  them- 
selves in  the  salmis  of  Paris,  and  the  Bureaus  of  the  Ministers. 
The  last  swords  drawn  for  "  the  legitimate  branch"  in  '91,  wa| 


784  POPULAtt    BISTORT    OF    IRELAWB, 

by  Count  Dillon  and  hia  friend,  Count  Wall ;  their  last  defender, 
in  1830,  was  General  Wall  of  the  same  family. 

Though  the  Irish  in  France,  especially  those  resident  at  Paris, 
exercised  the  greatest  influence  in  favor  of  their  original  conn- 
try — an  influence  which  met  all  traveled  Englishmen  wherever 
the  French  language  was  understood — their  compatriots  in  Spain 
and  Austria  had  also  contributed  their  share  to  range  Continen- 
tal opinion  on  the  side  of  Ireland.  Three  times,  during  the  cen- 
tury, Spain  was  represented  at  London  by  men  of  Irish  birth,  or 
Irish  origin.  The  British  merchant  who  found  Alexander  O'Reilly 
Governor  of  Cadiz,  or  the  diplomatist  who  met  him  as  Spanish 
ambassador,  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XVI.,  could  hardly  look  with 
uninstructed  eyes,  upon  the  lot  of  his  humblest  namesake  hi 
Cavan.  This  family,  indeed,  produced  a  succession  of  eminent 
men,  both  in  Spain  and  Austria.  "  It  is  strange,"  observed  Napo- 
leon to  those  around  him,  on  his  second  entry  into  Vienna,  in 
1809,  "  that  on  each  occasion — in  November,  1805,  as  this  day — 
on  arriving  in  the  Austrian  capital,  I  find  myself  in  treaty  and 
in  intercourse  with  the  respectable  Count  O'Reilly."  Napoleon 
had  other  reasons  for  remembering  this  officer ;  it  was  his  dra- 
goon regiment  which  saved  the  remnant  of  the  Auetrians,  at 
A  n.-t  «.-rlit  /.  In  the  Austrian  army  list  at  that  period,  when  she  was 
the  ally  of  England,  there  were  above  forty  Irish  names,  from  th« 
grade  of  Colonel  up  to  that  of  Field-marshal.  In  almost  every 
field  of  the  Peninsula,  Wellington  and  Anglesea  learned  the  value 
of  George  the  Second's  imprecation  on  the  Penal  Code,  which 
deprived  him  of  such  soldiers  as  conquered  at  Fontenoy.  It 
cannot  be  doubted  that  even  the  constant  repetition  of  the  names 
of  the  Blakes,  O'Donnolls,  and  Sarsfields,  in  the  bulletins  sent 
homu  to  England,  tended  to  enforce  reflections  of  that  description 
ou  the  statesmen  and  the  nation,  and  to  inspirit  and  sustain  the 
•trng^ling  Catholics.  A  powerful  argument  for  throwing  open 
the  British  army  and  navy  to  men  of  all  religions,  was  drawn 
from  these  foreign  experiences ;  and,  if  such  men  were  worthy  to 
hold  military  commissions,  why  not  also  to  sit  in  Parliament,  and 
on  the  Bench  ? 

The  f«»rtunpp  of  tho  Irish  in  America,  though  less  brilliant  for 
(he  few,  were  more  advantageous  as  to  the  many.  They  werf 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OB1   IRELAND.  785 

during  the  war  of  the  revolution,  and  the  war  of  1812,  a  very 
3onsiderf.ble  element  in  the  American  republic.  It  was  a  violent 
exaggeration  to  say,  as  Lord  Mountjoy  did,  in  moving  for  the 
repeal  of  the  Penal  laws,  "  that  England  lost  America,  by  Ire- 
land ;"  but  it  is  very  certain  that  Washington  placed  great  weight 
on  the  active  aid  of  the  gallant  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and 
Southern  Irish  troops,  and  the  sturdy  Scotch-Irish  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. Franklin  in  his  visit  to  Ireland,  before  the  rupture,  and 
Jefferson  in  his  correspondence,  always  enumerates  the  Irish,  aa 
one  element  of  reliance,  in  the  contest  between  the  Colonies  and 
the  Empire. 

In  the  immediate  cause  of  the  war  of  1812,  this  people  were 
peculiarly  interested.  If  the  doctrines  of  "  the  right  of  search  " 
and  "  once  a  subject  always  a  subject,"  were  to  prevail,  no  Irish 
emigrant  could  hope  to  become — or  having  become,  could  hope 
to  enjoy  the  protection  of — an  American  citizen.  It  was,  there- 
fore, natural  that  men  of  that  origin  should  take  a  deep  interest 
In  the  war,  and  it  seems  something  more  than  a  fortuitous  ciroum- 
Btance,  when  we  find  in  the  chairman  of  the  Senatorial  Commit- 
tee of  1812,  which  authorized  the  President  to  raise  the  necessary 
levies — an  Irish  emigrant,  John  Smilie,  and  in  the  Secretary-at-war, 
who  acted  under  the  powers  thus  granted,  the  son  of  an  Irish  emi- 
grant, John  Caldwell  Calhoun.  On  the  Canadian  frontier,  during 
the  war  which  followed,  we  find  in  posts  of  importance,  Brady, 
Mullnny,  McComb,  Croghan  and  Reilly  ;  on  the  lakes,  Commodore 
McDonough,  and  on  the  ocean,  Commodores  Shaw  and  Stewart — 
all  Irish.  On  the  Mississippi,  another  son  of  Irish  emigrant 
parents,  with  his  favorite  lieutenants,  Carroll,  Coffee  and  Butler, 
brought  the  war  to  a  close  by  his  brilliant  defence  of  New  Or- 
leans. The  moral  of  that  victory  was  not  lost  upon  England ; 
the  life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  with  a  dedication  "  to  the  People  of 
Ireland  "  was  published  at  London,  and  Dublin,  by  the  most  gen- 
erally  popular  writer  of  that  day — William  Cobbett. 

In  the  cause  of  South  American  independence,  the  Irish  under 
O'Higgins  and  McKenna  in  Chili,  and  under  Bolivar  and  San 
Martin  in  Colombia  and  Peru,  were  largely  engaged,  and  honor- 
ably aiptingui?hed.  Colonel  O'Connor,  nephew  to  Arthur,  waa 
Ban  Martin's  chief  of  the  staff;  General  Devereux,  with  his  Irish 
66* 


786  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRBLAND. 

legion  rendered  distinguished  services  to  Bolivar  and  Don  Bw 
nanlo.  O'Higgina  was  hailed  as  the  Liberator  of  Chili.  During 
that  long  ten  years'  struggle,  which  ended  with  the  evacuation  of 
Carraccas  in  1823,  Irish  names  are  conspicuous  on  almost  every 
field  of  action.  Bolivar's  generous  heart  was  warmly  attached 
to  persons  of  that  nation.  "  The  doctor  who  constantly  attends 
him,"  says  the  English  General,  Miller,  "  is  Dr.  Moore,  an  Irish- 
man, who  had  followed  the  Liberator  from  Venezuela  to  Peru. 
He  is  a  man  of  great  skill  in  his  profession,  and  devotedly  attached 
to  the  person  of  the  Liberator.  Bolivar's  first  aide  de-camp,  Col- 
onel O'Leary,  is  a  nephew  of  the  celebrated  Father  O'Leary.  In 
1818,  hi-  embarked,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  in  the  cause  of  South 
American  independence,  in  which  he  has  served  with  high  dis- 
tinction, having  been  present  at  almost  every  general  action 
fought  in  Colombia,  and  has  received  several  wounds.  He  has 
been  often  employed  on  diplomatic  missions,  and  in  charges  of 
great  resposibility,  in  which  he  has  always  acquitted  himself  with 
great  ability." 

That  these  achievements  of  the  Irish  abroad  produced  a  favor- 
able influence  on  the  situation  of  the  Irish  at  home,  we  know  from 
many  collateral  sources  ;  we  know  it  also  from  the  fact,  that  when 
O'Connell  succeeded  in  founding  a  really  national  organization, 
subscriptions  and  words  of  encouragement  poured  in  on  him, 
not  only  from  France,  Spain  and  Austria,  but  from  North  and 
South  America,  not  only  from  the  Irish  residents  in  those  coun- 
tries, but  from  their  native  inhabitants — soldiers  and  statesmen—- 
of the  first  consideration.  The  services  and  virtues  of  her  di» 
tinguishcd  children  in  foreign  climes,  stood  to  the  mother  country 
Inutead  of  treaties  and  alliaixm 


,.vo 


POPULAR    HI8TORT    OF   IRBLANB.  78? 


CHAPTER  VIL 

O'OONNELL'S  LEADERSHIP. — THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION. — 
1821  TO  1826. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  year  1821,  O'Connell,  during  the  inter- 
vals of  his  laborious  occupations  in  court  and  on  circuit,  addressed 
a  series  of  stirring  letters  to  "  the  People  of  Ireland,"  remark- 
able as  containing  some  of  the  best  and  most  trenchant  of  hii 
political  writings.  His  object  was  to  induce  the  postponement  of 
the  annual  petition  for  Emancipation,  and  the  substitution  instead 
of  a  general  agitation  for  Parliamentary  reform,  in  conjunction 
with  the  English  reformers.  Against  this. conclusion — which  he 
ridiculed  "  as  the  fashion  for  January,  1821 " — Mr.  Shiel  published 
a  bitter,  clever,  rhetorical  reply,  to  which  O'Conuell  at  once  sent 
forth  a  severe  and  rather  contemptuous  rejoinder.  Shiel  was 
quite  content  to  have  Mr.  Plunkett  continue  Grattan's  annual 
motion,  with  all  its  "  conditions "  and  "  securities."  O'Connell 
declared  he  had  no  hope  in  petitions  except  from  a  reformed  Par- 
liament, and  he,  therefore,  was  opposed  to  such  motions  altogether, 
especially  as  put  by  Mr.  Plunkett,  and  the  other  advocates  of  a 
Veto.  Another  session  was  lost  in  this  controversy,  and  when 
Parliament  rose,  it  was  announced  that  George  IV.  was  coming 
to  Ireland  "  on  a  mission  of  Conciliation." 

On  this  announcement  Mr.  O'Connell  advised  that  the  Catholics 
should  take  advantage  of  his  Majesty's  presence  to  assemble  and 
consider  the  state  of  their  affairs,  but  a  protest  against  "  con- 
necting in  any  manner  the  king's  visit  with  Catholic  affairs,"  waa 
circulated  by  Lords  Fingal,  Netterville,  Gormanstown,  and  K51- 
leen,  Messrs.  Baggott,  Shiel,  Wyse,  and  other  Commoners. 
O'Connell  yielded,  as  he  often  did,  for  the  sake  of  unanimity. 
The  king's  visit  led  to  many  meetings  and  arrangements,  in  some 
of  which  his  advice  was  taken,  while  in  others  he  was  outvoted 
or  overruled.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  patience  he  exhibited  at 
this  period  of  his  life,  when  his  naturally  impetuous  temperament 
was  still  far  from  being  subdued  by  the  frosts  of  age. 

Many  liberal  Protestants  at  this  period— the  king's  brief  visit — 


788  POPULAR   HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 

were  so  moved  with  admiration  for  the  judicious  and  proper  con- 
duct of  the  Catholic  leaders,  that  a  new  but  short-lived  orgaiuza- 
tion  called  "  the  Conciliation  Committee,"  was  formed.  Theultit 
Orange  zealots,  however,  were  not  to  he  restrained  even  by  the 
presence  of  the  sovereign  for  whom  they  professed  BO  much  devo- 
tion. In  the  midst  of  the  preparations  for  his  landing,  they  cele- 
brated, with  all  its  offensive  accompaniments,  the  12th  of  July, 
and  at  the  Dublin  dinner  to  the  king — though  after  he  had  left 
the  room — they  gave  their  charter  toast  of  "  the  glorious,  pious, 
and  immortal  memory."  The  Committee  of  Conciliation  soon 
dwindled  away,  and  like  the  visit  of  George IV., left  no  good  re- 
sult behind. 

The  year  1822  was  most  remarkable,  at  its  commencement,  for 
the  arrival  of  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  as  Lord-Lieutenant,  and 
at  its  close,  for  the  assault  committed  on  him  in  the  theatre,  by 
the  Dublin  Orangemen.  Though  the  Marquis  had  declined  to 
interfere  in  preventing  the  annual  Orange  celebration,  he  was 
well  known  to  be  friendly  to  the  Catholics ;  their  advocate,  Mr. 
Plunkett,  was  his  Attorney  General;  and  many  of  their  leaders 
were  cordially  welcomed  at  the  Castle.  These  proofs  were  suffi- 
cient for  the  secret  tribunals  which  sat  upon  his  conduct,  and 
when  his  lordship  presented  himself,  on  the  night  of  the  14th  of 
December,  at  the  theatre,  he  was  assailed  by  an  organized  mob, 
one  of  whom  flung  a  heavy  piece  of  wood,  and  another  a  quart 
bottle,  towards  the  state  box.  Three  Orangemen,  mechanics, 
were  arrested  and  tried  for  the  offence,  but  acquitted  on  a  techni- 
cal defect  of  evidence ;  a  general  feeling  of  indignation  was  ex- 
cited among  all  classes  in  consequence,  and  it  is  questionable  if 
Orangeiam,  in  Dublin,  ever  recovered  the  disgust  occasioned  by 
that  dastardly  outrage. 

The  great  and  fortunate  event,  however,  for  the  Catholics,  wit 
the  foundation  of  their  new  Association,  which  was  finally  re- 
solved tipon  at  an  Aggregate  Meeting  held  in  "  Townsend  Street 
Chapel,"  on  the  10th  of  May,  1828.  Thia  meeting  had  been 
called  by  an  imposing  requisition  signed  with  singular  unanimity 
by  nil  the  principal  Catholic  gentleman.  Lord  Killeeu  presided, 
Mr  O  Coanell  moved  the  formation  of  the  As3<*c°.  r 

Thomas  Esmonde  seconded  the  motion;  Mr.  Shiel — lately  anrf 


POPULAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  ^89 

sincerely  reconciled  to  O'Connell — sustained  it.  The  plan  was 
simple  and  popular.  The  Association  was  to  consist  of  members 
paying  a  guinea  a  year,  and  associates  paying  a  shilling ;  a  stand- 
ing committee  was  to  form  the  government ;  the  regular  meetings 
urere  to  be  weekly — every  Saturday ;  and  the  business  to  consist 
of  organization,  correspondence,  public  discussions,  and  petitions. 
It  was,  in  effect,  to  be  a  sort  of  extern  and  unauthorized  Parlia- 
nwnt,  acting  always  within  the  Constitution,  with  a  view  to  the 
modification  of  the  existing  laws,  by  means  not  prohibited  in 
those  laws  themselves.  It  was  a  design,  subtle  in  conception,  but 
simple  in  form ;  a  natural  design  for  a  lawyer-liberator  to  form 
and  for  a  people  strongly  prepossessed  in  his  favor  to  adopt ;  but 
one,  at  the  same  time,  which  would  require  a  rare  combination  of 
circumstances  to  sustain  for  any  great  length  of  time,  under  a 
leader  less  expert,  inventive,  and  resolute. 

The  parliamentary  position  of  the  Catholic  question,  at  the 
moment  of  the  formation  of  the  Association,  had  undergone  an 
other  strange  alteration.  Lord  Castlereagh,  having  attained  the 
highest  honors  of  the  empire,  died  by  his  own  hand  the  previous 
year.  Lord  Liverpool  remained  Premier,  Lord  El»bn  Chancel- 
lor, Mr.  Canning  became  Foreign  Secretary,  with  Mr.  Peel,  Home 
Secretary,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  continuing  Master-General 
of  the  Ordnance.  To  this  cabinet,  so  largely  anti- Catholic",  the 
chosen  organ  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  Mr.  Plunkett,  was  necessarily 
associated  as  Irish  Attorney  General.  His  situation,  therefore, 
was  in  the  session  of  1823  one  of  great  difficulty ;  this  Sir  Fran- 
cis Burdett  and  the  radical  reformers  at  once  perceived,  and  in 
the  debates  which  followed,  pressed  him  unmercifully.  They 
quoted  against  him  his  own  language  denouncing  cabinet  com- 
promises on  so  vital  a  question,  in  1813,  and  to  show  their  indig- 
nation, when  he  rose  to  reply,  they  left  the  house  in  a  body. 
His  speech,  as  always,  was  most  able,  but  the  house,  when  he 
eat  down,  broke  into  an  uproar  of  confusion.  Party  spirit  ran 
exceedingly  high;  the  possibility  of  advancing  the  question 
during  the  session  was  doubtful,  and  a  motion  to  adjourn  pre- 
vailed. A  fortnight  later,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Catholio 
Association,  a  very  cordial  vote  of  thanks  to  Pluikelt,  was  carried 
by  acclamation. 


90         POPULAB  USTORT  OF  IRELAND. 

The  new  Catholic  organization  was  laboring  hard  to  merit 
popular  favor.  Within  the  year  of  its  organization  we  fiad  th« 
Saturday  meetings  engaged  with  such  questions  as  church  rates; 
secret  societies ;  correspondence  with  members  of  both  houses ; 
voting  public  thanks  to  Mr.  Brougham ;  the  penal  laws  relating 
to  the  rights  of  sepulture ;  the  purchase  of  a  Catholic  cemetery 
near  Dublin ;  the  commutation  of  tithes ;  the  admission  of  Catho- 
lic freemen  into  corporations;  the  extension  of  the  Association 
into  every  county  in  Ireland,  and  other  more  incidental  subjects. 
The  business-like  air  of  the  weekly  meeting?,  at  this  early  period, 
is  remarkable :  they  were  certainly  anything  but  mere  occasions 
for  rhetorical  display.  But  though  little  could  be  objected  against, 
and  so  much  might  be  said  in  favor  of  the  labors  of  the  Associa- 
tion, it  was  not  till  nearly  twelve  months  after  its  organization, 
when  O'Connell  proposed  and  carried  his  system  of  monthly 
penny  subscriptions  to  the  "  Catholic  Rent,"  that  it  took  a  firm 
and  far-reaching  hold  on  the  common  people,  and  began  to  excite 
the  serious  apprehensions  of  the  oligarchical  factions  in  Ireland 
and  England. 

This  bold,  and  at  this  time  much  ridiculed  step,  infused  new  life 
and  a  system  hitherto  unknown  into  the  Catholic  population. 
The  parish  collectors,  corresponding  directly  with  Dublin,  estab- 
lished a  local  agency,  coextensive  with  the  kingdom ;  the  smallest 
contributor  felt  himself  personally  embarked  in  the  contest;  and 
the  movement  became,  in  consequence,  what  it  had  not  been  be- 
fore, an  eminently  popular  one.  During  the  next  six  months  the 
receipts  from  penny  subscriptions  exceeded  £100  sterling  per 
month,  representing  24,000  subscribers;  during  the  next  year 
they  averaged  above  £500  a  week,  representing  nearly  half  A 
million  enrolled  Associates  1 

With  the  additional  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  Finance 
Committee  of  the  Association,  its  power  rose  rapidly.  A  morning 
and  an  evening  journal  were  at  its  command  in  Dublin ;  many 
thousands  of  pounds  were  expended  in  defending  the  people  ia 
the  courts,  and  prosecuting  their  Orange  and  other  enemies. 
Annual  subsidies,  of  £5,000  each,  were  voted  for  the  Catholic 
Poor  schools,  and  the  education  of  missionary  priest*  for  Amer- 
ica ;  the  expenses  of  parliamentary  and  electioneering  agents  wer« 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND,  791 

Jso  hea^y.  But  for  all  these  purposes  "  the  Catholic  Rent,"  of  a 
penny  per  month  from  each  associate,  was  found  amply  sufficient. 

At  the  close  of  1824,  the  government,  really  alarmed  at  the 
formidable  proportions  assumed  by  the  agitation,  caused  criminal 
informations  to  be  filed  against  Mr.  O'Connell,  for  an  alleged 
seditious  allusion  to  the  example  of  Bolivar,  the  liberator  of 
South  America ;  but  the  Dublin  grand  jury  ignored  the  bills  of 
Indictment  founded  on  these  informations.  Early  in  the  follow- 
Ing  session,  however,  a  bill  to  suppress  "  Unlawful  Associations  in 
Ireland,"  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Goulburn,  who  had  succeeded 
Sir  Robert  Peel  as  Chief  Secretary,  and  was  supported  by  Plunkett 
— a  confirmed  enemy  of  all  extra-legal  combinations.  It  waa 
aimed  directly  at  the  Catholic  Association,  and  passed  both 
houses ;  but  O'Connell  found  means  "  to  drive,"  as  he  said.  "  a 
coach  and  six  through  it."  The  existing  Association  dissolved  on 
the  passage  of  the  act ;  another,  called  "  the  New  Catholic  Asso- 
ciation," was  formed  for  "  charitable  and  other  purposes,"  and  the 
agitators  proceeded  with  their  organization,  with  one  word  added 
to  their  title,  and  immensely  additional  eclat  and  success. 

In  Parliament,  the  measure  thus  defeated  was  followed  by  an- 
other, the  long-promised  Relief  Bill.  It  passed  in  the  Commons 
in  May,  accompanied  by  two  clauses,  or  as  they  were  called, 
"  wings,"  most  unsatisfactory  to  the  Catholic  body.  One  clause 
disfranchised  the  whole  class  of  electors  known  as  the  "  forty- 
shilling  freeholders ;"  the  other  provided  a  scale  of  state  mainte- 
nance for  the  Catholic  clergy.  A  bishop  was  to  have  £1,000  per 
annum ;  a  dean  £300 ;  a  parish  priest  £200 ;  a  curate  £60.  This 
measure  was  thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords,  greatly  to  the 
satisfaction,  at  least,  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  It  was  during  this 
debate  in  the  upper  house,  that  the  Duke  of  York,  presumptive 
heir  to  the  throne,  made  what  was  called  his  "  ether  speech " — 
from  his  habit  of  dosing  himself  with  that  stimulant  on  trying 
occasions.  In  this  speech  he  declared,  that  so  "  help  him  God," 
be  would  never,  never  consent  to  acknowledge  the  claims  put  for- 
ward by  the  Catholics.  Before  two  years  were  over,  death  had 
removed  him  to  the  presence  of  that  Awful  Being  whose  name 
be  had  so  rashly  invoked,  and  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Clarence, 
assumed  his  position,  as  next  in  succession  to  the  throne. 


^92  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

The  Catholic  delegates,  Lord  Killeen,  Sir  Thomas  Esmond*, 
Lawless,  and  Shiel,  were  in  London  at  the  time  the  Duke  of 
York  made  his  memorable  declaration.  If,  on  the  one  hand, 
they  were  regarded  with  dislike  amounting  to  hatred,  on  the 
other,  they  were  welcomed  with  cordiality  by  all  the  leaders  of 
the  liberal  party.  The  venerable  Earl  Fitzwilliam  emerged  from 
lib  retirement  to  do  them  honor ;  the  gifted  and  energetic 
Brougham  entertained  them  with  all  hospitality;  at  Norfolk 
House  they  were  banqueted  in  the  room  in  which  George  III.  was 
born:  the  millionaire-demagogue  Burdett,  the  courtly,  liberal 
Lord  Grey,  and  the  flower  of  the  Catholic  nobility,  were  invited 
to  meet  them.  The  delegates  were  naturally  cheered  and  grati- 
fied ;  they  felt,  they  must  have  felt,  that  their  cause  had  a  grasp 
upon  Imperial  attention,  which  nothing  but  concession  could  ever 
loosen. 

Committees  of  both  houses,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  Ire- 
land, had  Rat  during  a  great  part  of  this  Session,  and  among  the 
witnesses  were  the  principal  delegates,  with  Drs.  Murray,  Curtis, 
Kelly,  and  Doyle.  The  evidence  of  the  latter — the  eminent  Pre- 
late of  Kildare  and  Leighlin — attracted  most  attention.  His 
readiness  of  resource,  clearness  of  statement,  and  wide  range  of 
information,  inspired  many  of  his  questioners  with  a  feeling  of 
respect,  such  as  they  had  never  before  entertained  for  any  of  his 
order.  His  writings  had  already  made  him  honorably  distin- 
guished among  literary  men ;  his  examination  before  the  Commit- 
tees made  him  equally  so  among  statesmen.  From  that  period  he 
could  reckon  the  Marquises  of  Angleseaand  Wellesley,  Lord  Lana- 
downe  and  Mr.  Brougham,  among  his  correspondents  and  friends, 
and,  what  he  valued  even  more,  among  the  friends  of  his  cause. 
Mr.  O'Connell,  on  the  other  hand,  certainly  lost  ground  in  Ireland 
by  his  London  journey.  He  had,  unquestionably,  given  his  assent 
to  both  "  wings,"  in  1825,  as  he  did  to  the  remaining  one  in  1828, 
and  (hereby  greatly  injured  his  own  popularity.  His  frank  and 
full  recantation  of  hi-  error,  on  his  return,  soon  restored  him  to 
the  favor  of  the  multitude,  and  enabled  him  to  employ,  with  the 
b«st  effect,  the  enormous  influence  which  he  showed  he  posse-used 
«t  the  general  elections  of  1826.  By  him  mainly  the  Bercaforde 
vere  beaten  in  Waterford,  the  Fosters  in  Louth,  and  tie  Lealiea 


*OP0LAR   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  93 

In  Monaghan.  The  independence  of  Limerick  city,  of  Tipperary. 
Cork,  Kilkenny,  Lougford,  and  other  important  constituencies, 
was  secured.  The  parish  machinery  of  the  Association  was  found 
iiivnlunblo  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  up  the  electors,  and  '*je 
people's  treasury  was  fortunately  able  to  protect  to  some  exten* 
the  fearless  voter,  who,  in  despite  of  his  landlord,  voted  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  his  own  heart. 

The  efl'ect  of  these  elections  on  the  empire  at  large  was  very 
great.  When,  early  in  the  following  spring,  Lord  Liverpool, 
after  fifteen  years'  possession  of  power,  died  unexpectedly,  George 
IV.  sent  for  Canning  and  gave  him  carte  blanche  to  form  a  cabinet 
without  excepting  the  question  of  Emancipation.  That  high 
spirited  and  really  liberal  statesman  associated  with  himself  a 
ministry,  three-fourths  of  whom  were  in  .favor  of  granting  the 
Catholic  claims.  This  was  in  the  month  of  April;  but  to  the 
consternation  of  those  whose  hopes  were  now  so  justly  raised, 
the  gifted  Premier  held  office  only  four  months;  his  lamented 
death  causing  another  "  crisis,"  and  one  more  postponement  of 
"  the  Catholic  question." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

O'OONNELL'B  LEADERSHIP. — THE  CLARE  ELECTION. — EMANCIPATION  OF 
THE  CATHOLICS. 

A  VERY  little  reflection  will  enable  us  to  judge,  even  at  this  day, 
the  magnitude  of  the  contest  in  which  O'Connell  was  the  great 
popular  leader,  during  the  reign  of  George  IV.  In  Great  Britain, 
a  very  considerable  section  of  the  ancient  peerage  and  gentrv, 
with  the  Earl  Marshal  at  their  head,  were  to  be  restored  to 
political  existence,  by  the  act  of  Emancipation ;  a  missionary,  and 
barely  tolerated  clergy  were  to  be  clothed,  in  their  own  country, 
with  the  commonest  rights  of  British  subjects — protection  to  life 
and  property.  In  Ireland,  seven-eighths  of  the  people,  one-third 
87 


?94  POPULAR    HIBTORT   OF   IRELAND. 

of  the  gentry,  the  whole  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  the  nnmeroni 
and  distinguished  array  of  the  Catholic  bar,  and  all  the  Catholic 
townsmen,  taxed  but  unrepresented  in  the  corporate  bodies,  wore 
to  enter  on  a  new  civil  and  social  condition,  on  the  passage  of  the 
act.  In  the  colonies,  except  Canada,  where  that  church  was  pro 
t«cted  by  treaty,  the  change  of  Imperial  policy  towards  Catholic* 
was  to  be  felt  in  every  relation  of  life,  civil,  military  and  ecclesi 
astical,  by  all  persons  professing  that  religion.  Some  years  ago, 
a  bishop  of  Southern  Africa  declared,  that,  until  O'Connell's 
time,  it  was  impossible  for  Catholics  to  obtain  any  consideration 
from  the  officials  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Could  there  be  a 
more  striking  illustration  of  the  magnitude  of  the  movement, 
which,  rising  in  the  latitude  of  Ireland,  flung  its  outermost  wave 
of  influence  on  the  shores  of  the  Indian  ocean  ? 

The  adverse  hosts  to  be  encountered  in  this  great  contest,  in- 
cluded a  large  majority  of  the  rank  and  wealth  of  both  king- 
doms. The  king,  who  had  been  a  Whig  in  his  youth,  had  grown 
into  a  Tory  in  his  old  age ;  the  House  of  Lords  were  strongly 
hostile  to  the  measure,  as  were  also  the  universities,  both  in  Eng- 
land and  Ireland ;  the  Tory  party,  in  and  out  of  Parliament ;  the 
Orange  organization  in  Ireland ;  the  civil  and  military  authorities 
generally,  with  the  great  bulk  of  the  rural  magistracy  and  the 
municipal  authorities.  The  power  to  overcome  this  power  should 
be  indeed  formidable,  well  organized  and  wisely  directed. 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  selected  by  Mr.  Canning,  was  the  Marquis 
of  Anglesea,  a  frank  soldier,  as  little  accustomed  to  play  the 
politician  as  any  man  of  his  order  and  distinction  could  be.  He 
came  to  Ireland,  in  many  respects  the  very  opposite  of  Lord 
Wellesley ;  no  orator  certainly,  and  so  far  as  he  had  spoken  for- 
merly, an  enemy  rather  than  a  friend  to  the  Catholics.  But  ha 
had  not  been  three  months  in  office  when  he  began  to  modify  his 
views ;  he  was  the  first  to  prohibit,  in  Dublin,  the  annual  Orange 
onlrage  on  the  12th  of  July,  and  by  subsequent,  though  slow  de- 
grees, he  became  fully  convinced  that  the  Catholic  claims  could 
be  settled  only  by  Concession.  Lord  Francis  Leveson  Gower 
afterwards  Earl  of  Ellesmere,  accompanied  the  Marquis  as  Chief 
Secretary. 

The  accession  to  office  of  a  prime  minister  friendly  to  the  Catb 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OP    IRELAND.  795 

tholics,  was  the  signal  for  a  new  attempt  to  raise  that  "  No. 
Popery  "  cry  which  had  already  given  twenty  years  of  political 
supremacy  to  Mr.  Perceval,  and  Lord  Liverpool.  In  Ireland,  this 
feeling  appeared  under  the  guise  of  what  was  called  "  the 
New  Reformation,"  which,  during  the  summer  of  1827,  raged  with 
all  the  proverbial  violence  of  the  odiwn  theolngicitm  from  Cork  to 
Derry.  Priests  and  parsons,  laymen  and  lawyers,  took  part  in 
this  general  politico-religious  controversy,  in  which  every  possible 
subject  of  difference  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  was  pub- 
licly discussed.  Archbishop  Magee  of  Dublin,  the  Rev.  Sir  Har- 
court  Lees,  son  of  a  former  English  placeman  at  the  Castle,  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Pope,  were  the  clerical  leaders  in  this  crusade ;  Exeter- 
Hall  sent  over  to  assist  them  the  Honorable  and  Reverend  Baptist 
Noel,  Mr.  Wolff,  and  Captain  Gordon,  a  descendant  of  the  hero 
of  the  London  riot  of  1789.  At  Derry,  Dublin,  Carlow,  and  Cork, 
the  challenged  agreed  to  defend  their  doctrines.  Father  Maginn, 
Maguire,  Maher,  Mc^weeney,  and  some  others,  accepted  these 
challenges  ;  Messrs.  O'Connell,  Shiel,  and  other  laymen,  assisted, 
and  the  oral  discussion  of  theological  and  historical  questions 
became  as  common  as  town  talk  in  every  Irish  community. 
Whether,  in  any  case,  these  debates  conduced  to  conversion  ia 
doubtful ;  but  they  certainly  supplied  the  Catholic  laity  with  a 
body  of  facts  and  arguments  very  necessary  at  that  time,  and 
which  hardly  any  other  occasion  could  have  presented.  The 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Doyle,  however,  considered  them  far  from  bene- 
ficial to  the  cause  of  true  religion ;  and  though  he  tolerated  a 
first  discussion  in  his  diocese,  he  positively  forbade  a  second. 
The  Archbishop  of  Armagh  and  other  prelates  issued  their  man. 
dates  to  the  clergy  to  refrain  from  these  oral  disputes,  and  the 
practice  fell  into  disuse. 

The  notoriety  of  "  the  Second  Reformation  "  was  chiefly  c'ue  to 
the  ostentatious  patronage  of  it  by  the  lay  chiefs  of  the  Irish  oiig&r. 
chy.  Mr.  Synge,  in  Clare,  Lord  Lorton,  and  Mr.  McClintock  at 
Dundalk,  were  indefatigable  in  their  evangelizing  exertions.  The 
Earl  of  Roden — to  show  his  entire  dependence  on  the  translated 
Bible — threw  all  his  other  books  into  a  fish  pond  on  his  estate. 
Lord  Farnham  was  even  more  conspicuous  in  the  revival ;  ho 
spared  neither  patronage  nor  writs  of  ejectment  to  convert  his 


706  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELASD. 

tenantry.  The  reports  of  conversions  upon  his  lordship's  estate^ 
and  throughout  his  county,  attracted  so  much  notice,  that  Drs. 
Curtis,  Crolly,  Magauran,  O'Reilly,  and  McHale,  met  on  the  9th 
of  December,  1826,  at  Cavan,  to  inquire  into  the  facts.  They 
found,  while  there  had  been  much  exaggeration  on  the  part  of  tht 
reformers,  that  some  hundreds  of  the  peasantry  had,  by  various 
powerful  temptations,  been  led  to  change  their  former  religion. 
The  Bishops  received  back  some  of  the  converts,  and  a  jubilee 
established  among  them  completed  their  re  conversion.  The  Hou. 
Mr.  Noel  and  Captain  Gordon  posted  to  Cavan,  with  a  challenge 
to  discussion  for  their  lordships ;  of  course,  their  challenge  was 
not  accepted.  Thomas  Moore's  inimitable  satire  was  the  most 
effective  weapon  against  such  fanatics. 

The  energetic  literature  of  the  Catholic  agitation  attracted 
much  more  attention  than  its  oral  polemics.  Joined  to  a  blight 
army  of  Catholic  writers  including  Dr.  Doyle,  Thomas  Moore, 
Thomas  Furlong,  and  Charles  Butler,  there  was  the  powerful 
phalanx  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  led  by  Jeffrey  and  Sidney 
Smith,  and  the  English  liberal  press,  headed  by  William  Cobbett. 
Thomas  Campbell,  the  Poet  of  Hope,  always  and  everywhere  the 
friend  of  freedom,  threw  open  his  New  JUontldy,  to  Shell,  and 
William  Henry  Curran,  whose  sketches  of  the  Irish  Bar  and 
Bench,  of  Dublin  politics,  and  the  county  elections  of  1826,  will 
live  as  long  as  any  periodical  papers  of  that  day.  The  indefa- 
tigable Shiel,  writing  French  as  fluently  aa  English,  contributed 
besides,  to  the  Gazette  de  France,  a  series  of  papers,  which  were 
read  with  great  interest  on  the  Continent.  These  articles  were 
the  precursors  of  many  others,  which  made  the  Catholic  question 
at  length  an  European  question.  An  incident  quite  unimportant  in 
itself,  gave  additional  zest  to  those  French  articles.  The  Duke 
de  Montebcllo,  with  two  of  his  friends,  Messrs.  Duvergier  and 
Thnyer,  visited  Ireland  in  1 826.  Duvergier  wrote  a  series  of 
tery  interesting  letters  on  the  "  State  of  Ireland,"  which,  at  the 
time,  went  through  several  editions.  At  a  Catholic  meeting  in 
Ballinasloc,  the  Duke  had  some  compliments  paid  him,  which  he 
gracefully  acknowledged,  expressing  his  wishes  for  the  success  of 
their  cnuse.  This  simple  act  excited  a  great  deal  of  critic'inm  io 
England.  The  Paris  press  was  roused  In  consequence,  and  tbf 


POPULAR   BISTORT    OF   IRELAND,  791 

French  Catholics,  becoming  more  and  more  interested,  voted  an 
address  and  subscription  to  the  Catholic  association.  The  Bava- 
rian Catholics  followed  their  example,  and  similar  communications 
were  received  from  Spain  and  Italy. 

But  the  movement  abroad  did  not  end  in  Europe.  An  address 
from  British  India  contained  a  contribution  of  three  thousand 
pounds  sterling.  From  the  West  Indies  and  Canada,  generous 
assistance  was  rendered. 

In  the  United  States  sympathetic  feeling  was  most  active.  New 
York  felt  almost  as  much  interested  in  the  canse  as  Dublin.  In 
1826  and  1827,  associations  of  "  Friends  of  Ireland  "  were  formed 
at  New  York,  Boston,  Washington,  Norfolk,  Charleston,  Augusta, 
Louisville,  and  Bardstown.  Addresses  in  English  and  French 
•were  prepared  for  these  societies,  chiefly  by  Dr.  McNevin,  at 
New  York,  and  Bishop  England,  at  Charleston.  The  American, 
like  the  French  press,  became  interested  in  the  subject,  and  elo- 
quent allusions  were  made  to  it  in  Congress.  On  the  20th  of 
January,  1828,  the  veteran  McNevin  wrote  to  Mr.  O'Connell — 
"  Public  opinion  in  America  is  deep,  and  strong,  and  universal, 
in  your  behalf.  This  predilection  prevails  over  the  broad  bosom 
of  our  extensive  continent.  Associations  similar  to  ours  are 
everywhere  starting  into  existence — in  our  largest  and  wealthiest 
cities — in  our  hamlets  and  our  villages — in  our  most  remote  sec- 
tions ;  and  at  this  moment,  the  propriety  of  convening,  at  Wash 
ington,  delegates  of  the  friends  of  Ireland,  of  all  the  states,  ia 
under  serious  deliberation.  A  fund  will  erelong  be  derived  from 
American  patriotism  in  the  United  States,  which  will  astonish 
your  haughtiest  opponents." 

The  Parliamentary  fortunes  of  the  great  question  were  at  the 
same  time  brightening.  The  elections  of  1826,  had,  upon  the 
whole,  given  a  large  increase  of  strength  to  its  advocates.  In 
England  and  Scotland,  under  the  influence  of  the  "  No  Popery " 
cry,  they  had  lost  some  ground,  but  in  Ireland  they  had  had  an 
Immense  triumph.  The  death  of  the  generous  hearted  Canning, 
hastened  as  it  was  by  anti-Catholic  intrigues,  gave  a  momentary 
check  to  the  progress  of  liberal  ideaa ;  but  they  were  retarded  only 
to  acquire  a  fresh  impulse  destined  to  bear  them,  in  the  next  few 
years,  farther  than  they  had  before  advanced  in  an  entire  century, 
67* 


798  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 

The  ad  interim  administration  of  Lord  Goderich  gave  w»y,  by 
ita  o\vn  internal  discords,  in  January,  1828,  to  the  Wellington  and 
Peel  administration.  The  Duke  was  Premier,  the  Baronet  leader 
of  the  House  of  Commons ;  with  Mr.  Huskisson,  Lord  Palmer- 
Bton,  in  the  cabinet ;  Lord  Anglcsea  remained  as  Lord  Lieutenant 
But  this  coalition  with  the  friends  of  Canning  was  not  destined 
to  outlive  the  session  of  1828  ;  the  lieutenants  of  the  late  Premier 
•were  doomed,  for  some  time  longer,  to  suffer  for  their  devotion  to 
his  principles. 

This  session  of  1828,  is — in  the  history  of  religious  liberty — 
the  most  important  and  interesting  in  the  annals  of  the  British 
Parliament.  Almost  at  its  opening,  the  extraordinary  spectacle 
was  exhibited  of  a  petition  signed  by  800,000  Irish  Catholics, 
praying  for  the  repeal  of  "the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts,"  en- 
acted on  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  against  the  non  Conform- 
ists. Monster  petitions,  both  for  and  against  the  repeal  of  these 
Acts,  as  well  as  for  and  against  Catholic  emancipation,  soon  be- 
came of  common  occurrence.  Protestants  of  all  sects  petitioned 
for,  but  still  more  petitioned  against  equal  rights  for  Catholics  ; 
while  Catholics  petitioned  for  the  rights  of  Protestant  dissenters. 
It  is  a  spectacle  to  look  back  upon  with  admiration  and  instruc- 
tion ;  exhibiting  as  it  does,  so  much  of  a  truly  tolerant  spirit  in 
Christians  of  all  creeds,  worthy  of  all  honor  and  imitation. 

In  April,  "the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts"  were  repealed; 
in  May  the  Canningites  seceded  from  the  Duke's  government,  and 
one  of  the  gentlemen  brought  in  to  fill  a  vacant  seat  in  the  Cabi- 
net— Mr.  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  member  for  Clare — issued  his  address 
to  his  electors,  asking  a  renewal  of  their  confidence.  Out  of  this 
event  grew  another,  which  finally  and  successfully  brought  to  an 
issue  the  century  old  Catholic  question. 

The  Catholic  Association,  on  the  accession  of  the  Wellington- 
Peel  Cabinet,  had  publicly  pledged  itself  to  oppose  every  man 
who  would  accept  office  under  these  statesmen.  The  memory  of 
both  as  ex-secretaries — but  especially  Peel's — was  odious  in  Ire- 
land. When,  however,  the  Duke  had  sustained,  and  ensured 
thereby  the  passage  of  the  repeal  of  '•  the  Corporation  and  Tert 
Acts,"  Mr.  O'Connell  at  the  suggestion  of  Lord  John  Russell,  th« 
piover  of  the  repeal,  endeavored  to  get  MB  angry  and  uncompro- 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRKLAND.  199 

raising  resolution  against  the  Duke's  government  rescinded. 
Powerful  as  he  was,  however,  the  Association  refused  to  go  with 
him,  and  the  resolution  remained.  So  it  happened  that  when 
Mr.  Fitzgerald  presented  himself  to  the  Electors  of  Clare,  as  the 
colleague  of  Peel  and  Wellington,  the  Association  at  once  endeav- 
ored to  bring  out  an  opposition  candidate.  They  pitched  with 
this  view  on  Major  McNamara.  a  liberal  Protestant  of  the  county 
at  the  head  of  one  of  its  oldest  families  and  personally  popular ; 
but  this  gentleman  after  keeping  them  several  days  in  suspense, 
till  the  time  of  nomination  was  close  at  hand,  positively  declined 
to  stand  against  his  friend,  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  to  the  great  dismay 
of  the  associated  Catholics. 

Li  their  emergency,  an  idea,  so  bold  and  original,  that  it  was  at 
first  received  with  general  incredulity  by  the  external  public, 
was  started.  It  was  remembered  by  Sir  David  De  Roose,  a  per- 
sonal friend  of  O'Counell's,  that  the  late  sagacious  John  Keogh 
had  often  declared  the  Emancipation  question  would  never  be 
brought  to  an  issue  till  some  Catholic  member  elect  stood  at  the 
bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  demanding  his  seat.  A  trusted 
few  were  at  first  consulted  on  the  daring  proposition,  that  O'Con 
nell  himself,  in  despite  of  the  legal  exclusion  of  all  men  of  his  reli 
gion,  should  come  forward  for  Clare.  Many  were  the  consultations, 
and  diverse  the  judgments  delivered  on  this  proposal,  but  at  length, 
on  the  reception  of  information  from  the  county  itself,  which  gave 
strong  assurance  of  success,  the  hero  of  the  adventure  decided  for 
himself.  The  bold  course  was  again  selected  as  the  wise  course, 
and  the  spirit-stirring  address  of  "the  arch-Agitator"  to  the 
electors,  was  at  once  issued  from  Dublin.  "  Your  county,"  he  be- 
gan by  saying,  "  wants  a  representative.  I  respectfully  solicit 
yonr  suffrages,  to  raise  me  to  that  station. 

'•  Of  my  qualification  to  fill  that  station,  I  leave  you  to  judge. 
The  habits  of  public  speaking,  and  many,  many  years  of  public 
business,  render  me,  perhaps,  equally  suited  with  most  men  to 
attend  to  the  interests  of  Ireland  in  Parliament. 

"  You  will  be  told  I  am  not  qualified  to  be  elected ;  the  asser- 
tion, my  friends,  is  untrue.  I  am  qualified  to  be  elected,  and  to 
be  your  representative.  It  is  trie  that  as  a  Catholic,  I  cannot, 
and  of  course  never  will,  take  the  onfjis  at  present  preserved  t« 


800  POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRSLAfffc. 

members  of  Parliament ;  but  the  authority  which  created  theot 
oaths  (the  Parliament),  can  abrogate  them :  and  I  entertain  • 
confident  hope  that,  if  you  elect  me,  the  most  bigoted  of  oui 
enemies  will  see  the  necessity  of  removing  from  the  chosen  repre 
sentative  of  the  people,  an  obstacle  which  would  prevent  hirn 
from  doing  his  duty  to  his  king  and  to  his  country." 

This  address  was  followed  instantly  by  the  departure  of  all  the 
most  effective  agitators  to  the  scene  of  the  great  contest  Shiel 
went  down  as  conducting  agent  for  the  candidate ;  Lawless  left 
his  Belfast  newspaper,  and  Father  Maguire  his  Leitrim  flock; 
Messrs.  Steele  and  O'Gorman  Mahon,  both  proprietors  in  the 
county,  were  already  in  the  field,  and  O'Connell  himself  sooa 
followed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  leading  county  families,  the 
O'Briens,  McNainaras,  Vandeleurs,  Fitzgerald*  and  others,  de- 
clared for  their  old  favorite,  Mr.  Fitzgerald.  He  was  personally 
much  liked  in  the  county ;  the  son  of  a  venerable  anti-Unionist, 
the  well-remembered  Prime  Sergeant,  and  a  man  besides  of  supe 
rior  abilities.  The  county  itself  was  no  easy  one  to  contest:  it* 
immense  constituency  (the  40-shilling  freeholders  had  not  yet 
been  abolished),  were  scattered  over  a  mountain  and  valley  region, 
more  than  fifty  wiles  long  by  above  thirty  wide.  They  were 
almost  everywhere  to  be  addressed  in  both  languages — English 
and  Irish — and  when  the  canvass  was  over,  they  were  still  to  be 
brought  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  landlords,  upon  the  breath  of 
whose  lips  their  subsistence  depended,  to  vote  the  overthrow  and 
conquest  of  those  absolute  masters.  The  little  county  town  of 
Kim  is,  situated  on  the  river  Fergus,  about  110  miles  south-west 
of  Dublin,  was  the  centre  of  attraction  or  of  apprehension,  and  the 
hills  that  rise  on  either  side  of  the  little  prosaic  river  soon  swarmed 
with  an  unwonted  population,  who  had  resolved,  subsist  how  they 
might,  to  see  the  election  out  It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to 
lay  that  the  eyes  of  the  empire  were  turned,  during  those  dayi 
vif  June,  on  the  ancient  patrimony  of  King  Brian.  "  I  fear  the 
Clare  election  will  end  ill,"  wrote  the  Viceroy  to  the  hader  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  "  This  business,"  wrote  the  Lord  Chancellor 
(Eldon),  "  must  bring  the  Roman  Catholic  question  to  a  crisis  and 
a  conclusion."  "  May  the  God  of  truth  and  justice  protect  and 
prosper  you,"  was  the  public  invocation  for  O'Connell's  succes% 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  801 

by  the  bishop  of  Kildare  and  Leighlin.  "  It  was  foreseen,"  saia 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  long  afterwards,  "  that  the  Clare  election  would 
"ce  the  turning  point  of  the  Catholic  question."  In  all  its  aspects, 
and  to  all  sorts  of  men,  this  then,  was  no  ordinary  election,  but  a 
national  event  of  the  utmost  religious  and  political  consequence. 
Thirty  thousand  people  welcomed  O'Connell  into  Ennis,  and  uni- 
versal sobriety  and  order  characterized  the  proceedings.  The 
troops  called  out  to  overawe  the  peasantry,  infected  by  the  pre- 
vailing good  humor,  joined  in  their  cheers.  The  nomination,  the 
polling  and  the  declaration,  have  been  described  by  the  graphic 
pen  of  Shiel.  At  the  close  of  the  poll  the  numbers  were — • 
O'Connell,  2,057  ;  Fitzgerald,  1,075;  so  Daniel  O'Connell  was  de- 
clared duly  elected,  amidst  the  most  extraordinary  manifestation* 
of  popular  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  who  gracefully  bowed  to 
the  popular  verdict,  sat  down,  and  wrote  his  famous  dispatch  to 
Sir  Robert  Peel :  "  All  the  great  interests,"  he  said,  "  my  dear 
Peel,  broke  down,  and  the  desertion  has  been  universal.  Such  a 
scene  as  we  hare  had !  Such  a  tremendous  prospect  as  is  open 
before  us ! " 

This  "  tremendous  prospect,"  disclosed  at  the  hustings  of 
Ennis,  was  followed  up  by  demonstrations  which  bore  a  strongly 
revolutionary  character.  Mr.  O'Connell,  on  his  return  to  Dublin, 
was  accompanied  by  a  levee  en  masse,  all  along  the  route,  of  a 
highly  imposing  description.  Mr.  Lawless,  on  his  return  to  Bel- 
fast, was  escorted  through  Meath  and  Monaghan  by  a  multitude 
estimated  at  100,000  men,  whom  only  the  most  powerful  persua- 
sions of  the  Catholic  clergy,  and  the  appeals  of  the  well-known 
liberal  commander  of  the  district,  General  Thornton,  induced 
to  disperse.  Troops  from  England  were  ordered  over  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  but  whole  companies,  composed  of  Irish 
Catholics,  signalized  their  landing  at  Waterford  and  Dublin  by 
cheers  for  O'Connell.  Reports  of  the  continued  hostility  of  the 
government  suggested  desperate  councils.  Mr.  Ford,  a  Catholic 
solicitor,  openly  proposed,  in  the  Association,  exclusive  dealing 
and  a  run  on  the  banks  for  specie,  while  Mr.  John  Claudius  Berea. 
ford,  and  other  leading  Orangemen,  publicly  predicted  a  reviva. 
of  the  scenes  and  results  of  1798. 

The  Clare  election  was.  indeed,  decisive :  Lord  Anglesea,  who 


802  POPULAR    BISTORT   OP   IRBLAWD. 

landed,  fully  resolved  to  make  no  terms  with  those  he  lud  w 
garded  from  a  distance  as  no  better  than  rebels,  became  now  one  ol 
their  warmest  partisans.  H'9  favorite  councillor  was  Lord  Clon 
curry,  the  early  frieni  of  Emmett  and  O'Connor;  the  true  friend 
to  the  last  of  every  national  interest.  For  a  public  letter  to 
Bishop  Curtis,  towards  the  close  of  1828,  in  which  he  advises  th« 
Catholics  to  stand  firm,  he  was  immediately  recalled  from  the  gov- 
ernment ;  but  his  former  and  his  actual  chief,  within  three  months 
from  the  date  of  his  recall,  was  equally  obliged  to  surrender  to 
the  Association.  The  great  duke  was,  or  affected  to  be,  really 
alarmed  for  the  integrity  of  the  empire,  from  the  menacing  aspect 
of  events  in  Ireland.  A  call  of  parliament  was  accordingly 
made  for  an  early  day,  and,  on  the  5th  of  March,  Mr.  Peel  moved 
a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  to  go  into  a  "  consideration  of 
the  civil  disabilities  of  his  Majesty's  Roman  Catholic  subjects." 
This  motion,  after  two  days'  debate,  was  carried  by  a  majority 
of  188.  On  the  10th  of  March  the  Relief  Bill  was  read  for  the 
first  time,  and  passed  without  opposition,  such  being  the  arrange- 
ment entered  into  while  in  committee.  But  in  five  days  all  the 
bigotry  of  the  land  had  been  aroused ;  nine  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven  petitions  had  already  been  presented  against  it ;  that  from 
the  city  of  London  was  signed  by  more  than  "  an  hundred  thou- 
sand freeholders."  On  the  17th  of  March  it  passed  to  a  second 
reading,  and  on  the  30th  to  a  third,  with  large  majorities  in  each 
stage  of  debate.  Out  of  320  members  who  voted  on  the  final 
reading,  178  were  in  its  favor.  On  the  31st  of  March  it  was 
carried  to  the  Lords  by  Mr.  Peel,  and  read  a  first  time ;  two  days 
later,  on  the  2d  of  April,  it  was  read  a  second  time,  on  motion  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington ;  a  bitterly  contested  debate  of  three 
days  followed;  on  the  10th,  it  Was  read  a  third  time,  and  passed 
by  a  majority  of  104.  Three  days  later  the  bill  received  the 
royal  assent  and  became  law. 

The  only  drawbacks  on  this  great  measure  of  long-withheld 
justice,  were,  that  it  disfranchised  the  "  forty-shilling  freeholders  " 
throughout  Ireland,  and  condemned  Mr.  O'Connell,  by  the  inser- 
tion of  the  single  word  "  hereafter,"  to  go  back  to  Clare  for  re- 
election. In  this  there  was  little  difficulty  for  him,  but  much 
petty  spleen  in  the  framers  of  the  measure. 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF    IRELAND.  803 

While  the  Relief  Bill  was  still  under  discussion,  Mr.  O'Connell 
presented  himself,  with  his  counsel,  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  to  claim  his  seat  as  member  for  Clare.  The  pleadings 
in  the  case  were  adjourned  from  day  to  day,  during  the  months 
of  March,  April  and  May.  A  committee  of  the  House,  of  which 
Lord  John  Russell  was  Chairman,  having  been  appointed  in  the 
meantime  to  consider  the  petition  of  Thomas  Mahon  and  others, 
against  the  validity  of  the  election,  reported  that  Mr.  O'Connell 
had  been  duly  elected.  On  the  15th  of  May,  introduced  by  Lords 
Ebrington  and  Duncannon,  the  new  member  entered  the  House, 
and  advanced  to  the  table  to  be  sworn  by  the  Clerk.  On  the  oath 
of  abjuration,  being  tendered  to  him,  he  read  over  audibly  thesa 
words — "  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  and  the  invocation  of  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary,  and  other  saints,  as  now  practiced  in  the 
church  of  Rome,  are  impious  and  idolatrous :"  at  the  subsequent 
passage,  relative  to  the  falsely  imputed  Catholic  "  doctrine  of  the 
dispensing  power  "  of  the  Pope,  he  again  read  aloud,  and  paused. 
Then  slightly  raising  his  voice,  he  bowed,  and  added,  "  I  decline, 
Mr.  Clerk,  to  take  this  oath.  Part  of  it  I  know  to  be  false  ;  an- 
other part  I  do  not  believe  to  be  true." 

He  was  subsequently  heard  at  the  bar,  in  his  own  person,  in 
explanation  of  his  refusal  to  take  the  oath,  and,  according  to  cus- 
tom, withdrew.  The  house  then  entered  into  a  very  animated 
discussion  on  the  Solicitor  General's  motion,  "  that  Mr.  O'Connell, 
having  been  returned  a  member  of  this  House  before  the  passing 
of  the  Act  for  the  Relief  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  he  is  not  en- 
titled to  sit  or  vote  in  this  House  unless  he  first  takes  the  oath  of 
supremacy."  For  this  motion  the  vote  on  a  division  was  190 
against  116:  majority,  74.  So  Mr.  O'Connell  had  again  to  seek 
the  suffrages  of  the  electors  of  Clare. 

A  strange,  but  well  authenticated  incident,  struck  with  a  som& 
what  superstitious  awe  both  Protestants  and  Catholics,  in  a  cor- 
ner of  Ireland  the  most  remote  from  Clare,  but  not  the  least 
interested  in  the  result  of  its  memorable  election.  A  lofty 
column  on  the  walls  of  Derry  bore  the  efBgy  of  Bishop  Walker, 
who  fall  at  the  Boyne,  armed  with  a  sword,  typical  of  his  martial 
inclinations,  rather  than  of  his  religious  calling.  Many  long  years, 
by  day  and  night,  had  his  sword,  sacred  to  liberty  or  ascendancy; 


(k>4  POPULAR    HISTORY    Of   IRKLAHD. 

According  to  the  eyee  with  which  the  spectator  regarded  it,  turned 
its  steadfast  point  to  the  broad  estuary  of  Loch  Foyle.  Neither 
wintry  storms  nor  summer  rains  had  loosened  it  in  the  grasp  of 
the  warlike  churchman's  effigy,  until,  on  the  13th  day  of  April,  1829 
—  the  day  the  royal  signature  was  given  to  the  Act  of  Emancipa- 
tion— the  sword  of  Walker  fell  with  a  prophetic  crash  upon  the 
ramparts  of  Derry,  and  was  shattered  to  pieces.  So,  we  may 
now  say,  without  bitterness  and  almost  without  reproach,  so  may 
fall  and  shiver  to  pieces,  every  code,  in  every  land  beneath  the 
BUO.  which  impiously  attempts  to  shackle  conscience,  or  endowj 
ar  oxclusive  caste  with  the  rights  and  franchisee  which  belong 
U>  •«  entire  People  I 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


BOOK   XIII; 


FROM  THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  CATH- 
OLICS TO  THE  DUBLIN  EXHIBITION 
OF    1882,   EMBRACING    A    FULL 
ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LAND 
LEAGUE. 


By  David  P,  Oonyngham,  L.LD,, 

AUTHOR  OF 

EOSE   PAKNELL,    THE   FLOWER   OP  AVONDALE ; 

THE    O'MAHONEY;    THE    O'DONNELLS   OP 

GLEN  COTTAGE;  THE  LIVES  OF  THE 

IBISH  SAINTS  AND  MARTYB8, 

ETC.,  ETC. 


CONTENTS, 

BOOK  XTTL 


CHAPTER  I. 

Results  of  Catholic  Emancipation. — The  Tithe  War.— Poor 
Law,  Tithe,  and  Municipal  Reform  Acts. 

CHARTER  II. 

The  Repeal  Movement. — The  Monster  Meetings. — Arrest 
and  Imprisonment  of  O'Couuell  and  the  Repeal 

Leaders 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Famine  Period. — Frightful  Scones. — England's  Heart- 
less Treatment  of  the  Famine.— Foreign  Aid  and 
Sympathy. — Split  in  the  Repeal  Ranks. — The  Va- 
grancy Act. — Death  of  O'Connell. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Young  Ireland  and  the  "Forty-Eight"  Movement — The 
Encumbered  Estates  Act. — The  Tenant  League. — The 
Ecclesiastical  Tithes  Bill. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Alarm  in  England  at  the  Attitude  of  France. — The  Sadller- 
Keogh  Treachery.— The  Crimean  War — A  RomantU 
Abduction. 


BOOK  XIII* 


CHAPTER  L 

RESULTS  OF  CATHOLIC  EMANCEPATIOW. — THE  TITHB 
WAR— POOR  LAW,  TITHE  AND  MUNICIPAL  REFORM 
ACTS. 

Emancipation  was  in  the  eyes  of  Catholics  a  boon 
of  such  immense  magnitude,  that  in  their  gratitude 
for  the  religious  toleration  it  extended  to  them  they 
were  rather  lavish  of  their  thankfulness  to  England 
for  the  concession,  and  had  it  been  followed  by 
wise  and  conciliatory  concessions,  the  bitter  feeling 
against  England  that  rankles  in  the  Irish  heart 
might  have  been  softened  into  one  of  contented 
sufferance.  Though  the  act  struck  the  shackles 
from  the  souls  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  it  seemed 
to  have  only  fastened  the  more  those  that  fettered 
the  limbs.  True,  it  removed  all  obstacles  from  the 
free  and  full  exercise  of  their  religious  functions 
and  duties.  It  threw  open  the  learned  professions, 
with  all  their  honors  and  emoluments,  to  the  sona 
of  the  gentry,  only,  in  many  cases,  to  denationalize 
them  by  making  them  more  zealous  to  secure  Govern- 
ment patronage  than  to  redress  Irish  grievances. 

*  HcGee's  History  of  Ireland,  continued  from  1829  down  to 
1882,  by  David  P.  Conyngham,  L.LD.,  author  of  th«  "Lives  of 
the  Irish  Saints  and  Martyrs,"  and  other  works. 


80S  POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

"Religiously,  Catholic  Emancipation  had  trampled 
upon  the  bloody  penal  codes  that  had  so  long  perse- 
cuted the  people  and  proscribed  their  religion  ; 
politically,  it  only  embittered  the  strife  existing 
between  the  landlord  class  and  the  tenantry.  The 
victory  gained  by  O'Connell  by  his  election  for  Clare 
made  the  landlords  feel  that  they  had  lost  hold  on 
the  forty-shilling  freeholders,  and  therefore  they 
had  influence  enough  to  saddle  the  bill  with  a 
clause  disfranchising  this  large  body  of  Irish  yeo- 
men. 

The  result  was  that  the  epidemical  spirit  of  con- 
solidating the  small  farms  seized  the  landlords,  and 
•wholesale  evictions  followed.  The  consequence  was, 
that  the  people  thus  robbed  of  their  means,  and 
worried  by  cruel  and  unprincipled  persecution, 
banded  themselves  in  many  parts  of  the  country 
with  lawless  bodies  and  secret  societies  as  a  bond 
of  mutual  protection,  and  too  often  with  the  spirit 
of  retaliation  upon  their  oppressors. 

The  treatment  of  the  farmers,  who  had  frightened 
England  by  their  sturdy  independence,  and  the 
disturbed  state  of  the  country,  convinced  O'Connell 
that  there  was  no  salvation  for  Ireland  except  in 
the  protection  of  her  own  laws,  administered  by 
her  own  Parliament.  Discontent  and  disappoint- 
ment prevailed  throughout  the  country.  Crime  and 
outrage  prevailed  especially  in  Tipperary,  where  an 
internecine  war  rageil  between  the  landlords  and 
their  tenants,  and  in  the  North,  where  religious  hate 
*and  Orange  fanaticism  were  inflamed  by  the  poor 
toleration  extended  to  the  Catholics, 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  809 

The  very  Act  which  emancipated  the  people  dis- 
franchised thousands  of  them,  and  led  to  their  over- 
throw and  ruin.  Though  the  law  qualified  them  to 
hold  high  office,  it  took  the  bread  out  of  their  chil- 
dren's mouths  and  flung  themselves  homeless  and 
houseless  adrift  on  the  world. 

The  grievance  of  paying  tithes  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  a  Church  in  which  the  people  did  not  believe 
became  a  prominent  subject  of  agitation,  and  asso- 
ciations soon  sprang  into  existence  for  the  purpose 
of  opposing  this  monstrous  iniquity.  The  tithes 
represented  Protestant  Ascendency,  and  always 
stared  the  people  in  the  face  in  the  person  of  a  tithe- 
proctor,  who  was  only  too  ready  to  strip  them  of  their 
goods  to  satisfy  the  cupidity  of  an  alien  Church  and 
resident  ministers  who  gave  nothing  in  return  but 
hate  and  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  powers  in- 
vested in  them  by  law. 

The  Catholics  naturally  reasoned  thus  :  "  We  are 
as  five  to  one  to  our  Protestant  neighbors;  have  we 
not  as  good  a  right  to  demand  that  they  should  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  our  priests  as  that  we 
should  support  their  ministers  without  parishioners, 
or  their  churches  without  congregations?" 

In  1830  King  George  IV.  died,  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother,  King  William  IV.,  an  event  of  little 
or  no  consequence  to  Ireland,  for,  no  matter  who 
reigned  in  St.  James's,  her  treatment  was  the  same. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1830,  Parliament  opened 
but  was  soon  dissolved,  and  a  general  election  took 
place.  This  time  O'Connell  was  elected  for  Water- 
ford,  and  was  succeeded  in  Clare  by  O'Gorman 


810  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

Mahon.  Several  other  Catholic  gentlemen  now 
entered  Parliament  for  the  first  time.  William 
Smith  O'Brien  was  elected  for  Ennis,  so  that  he  took 
a  prominent  part  in  Irish  politics  when  quite  young. 

A  new  organization  called  the  "  Society  of  the 
Friends  of  Ireland "  took  the  place  of  the  Catholic 
Association.  The  Government  felt  irritated  because 
Catholic  Emancipation  did  not  fill  the  people  with 
abject  loyalty,  and  they  resolved  to  resort  to  the  old 
but  always  new  system  of  dealing  with  Irish  griev- 
ances, namely,  by  oppression  and  coercion. 

The  Marquis  of  Anglesea  revived  an  old  statute, 
just  as  Mr.  Gladstone  did,  to  suppress  agitation  in 
Ireland,  and  the  Association  had  to  be  dissolved. 
It  was  immediately  succeeded  by  another,  whose 
constitution  was  carefully  drafted  by  O'Connell, 
called  "  The  Anti-Union  Association." 

Though  O'Connell  never  omitted  an  opportunity 
of  proclaiming  that  Ireland  would  never  be  happy 
or  contented  until  her  Parliament  was  restored  to 
her,  still  this  was  the  first  organized  movement  in 
behalf  of  Repeal  of  the  Union. 

The  feeling  in  behalf  of  repeal  ran  high  in  Dublin, 
and  the  27th  of  December  was  set  down  for  a 
great  public  demonstration  of  the  trades-unions  of 
Dublin  in  honor  of  O'Connell  and  the  cause. 

Lord  Anglesea  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding 
the  meeting,  and  made  preparations  to  disperse  it  by 
force  in  case  it  was  held.  O'Connell  very  wisely 
prevented  any  demonstration,  and  therefore  left 
him  without  excuse  to  fire  upon  the  people. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  bitter  conflict 


POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  gJJ 

between  O'Connell  and  Lord  Anglesea,  in  which  the 
latter  was  always  victorious,  for  he  invariably  re- 
sorted to  the  weapons  of  tyrants,  namely,  brute 
force  and  coercion.  Any  association  could  be  pro- 
nounced "  illegal  and  dangerous,"  with  an  accomo- 
dating  sheriff,  a  bribed  jury  and  a  garrison  of  troops 
at  the  behest  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 

It  is  truly  said  that  history  repeats  itself,  for  the 
conflict  between  Gladstone  and  Parnell  in  our  own 
time  is  simply  a  brutal  repetition  of  that  between 
Anglesea  and  O'Connell.  On  the  one  hand  are  might 
and  power,  exercised  in  defiance  of  all  constitutional 
law;  and  on  the  other,  protests  and  passive  resistance, 
aided  by  the  moral  influence  of  public  opinion. 

O'Connell  resolved  to  test  the  legality  of  Lord 
Anglesea's  proclamation,  and  in  connection  with  Mr. 
Lawless,  Tom  Steele,  Mr.  Barrett,  Mr.  Eedmond, 
Mr.  Clooney,  and  a  few  other  gentlemen,  attended 
the  meeting,  and  were  arrested,  but  admitted  to  bail. 
A  great  crowd  filled  the  street  in  front  of  the  mag- 
istrates' office,  and  when  O'Connell  made  his  appear- 
ance among  them,  he  was  received  with  wild  demon- 
strations. He  exclaimed:  "Yesterday  I  was  only  half 
an  agitator;  to-day  I  am  a  whole  one.  Day  and 
night  will  I  now  strive  to  fling  off  despotism,  to  re- 
deem my  country,  to  repeal  the  Union." 

The  "  Agitator,"  as  he  was  called,  had  now  thrown 
down  the  -gauntlet,  and  resolved  to  try  issues  with 
the  Government. 

O'Connell  adroitly  postponed  his  trial  until  he 
found  the  "Whig  Ministry  in  an  embarrassing  posi- 
tion, when  they  could  not  afford  to  antagonize  him 


812  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

and  other  elements  against  their  Reform  Bffl;  he  then 
let  judgment  by  default  go  against  him,  but  was 
never  brought  up  for  sentence. 

In  1831  the  National  School  System  was  estab- 
lished in  Ireland,  by  virtue  of  a  bill  introduced  by 
Lord  Stanley. 

The  tithes  war  raged  fiercely  this  year ;  the  people 
resisted  their  collection,  and  several  serious  conflicts 
took  place  in  -various  parts  of  the  country.  On  the 
18th  of  June,  1831,  a  sale  was  advertised  to  take  place 
for  tithes  at  the  little  village  of  Newtownbarry,  County 
Wexford.  The  market-place  was  crowded  with  peo- 
ple and  their  miserable  effects.  The  Kev.  Mr.  Mo- 
Clintock,  the  Christian  Minister  who  was  selling  the 
beds  of  the  poor  for  the  good  of  the  Lord,  was  keep- 
ing guard  over  them,  protected  by  a  large  force  of 
police  and  yeomen.  The  sale  commenced,  some 
little  hooting  followed,  and  with  little  or  no  provoca- 
tion, and  acting,  as  has  been  asserted,  under  orders 
from  this  meek  follower  of  Christ,  the  police  and 
yeomen  opened  a  murderous  fire  upon  the  unarmed 
peasantry.  Thirteen  men  were  slain,  and  about 
twenty  more  lay  wounded  upon  the  streets.  No 
one  was  punished  for  this  legal  murder,  and  indeed 
the  Orange  faction,  and  many  Protestants,  too, 
lauded  the  act  as  a  salutary  warning  to  recusant 
Papists  who  were  unwilling  to  contribute  their  very 
beds  to  the  support  of  Protestant  Ascendency. 

But  all  this,  instead  of  coercing  the  people,  only 
irritated  them  to  further  resistance.  Some  tithe-proc- 
tors were  slain,  and  six  months  afterwards  occurred 
the  bloody  massacre  at  Carrickshock,  County  Kil- 


POPULAK   HISTOBY   OF   IRELAND.  813 

kenny,  where  a  process-server  and  thirteen  police- 
men were  killed  by  the  infuriated  peasantry. 

This  continued  resistance  to  tithes  was  denounced 
in  England  as  another  Popish  plot  for  the  subversion 
of  the  established  religion  and  the  restoration  of 
Popery.  Indeed,  grave  English  statesmen,  and  even 
historians,  treated  it  in  that  light.  Alison,  the  Tory 
historian,  discovered  in  it  "  The  Pope's  influence  in 
Ireland,"  and  even  looked  upon  the  cholera,  which 
raged  in  the  Summer  of  1832,  as  a  blessing,  as  it 
abated  the  mania  for  agitation.  This  reminds  us 
of  the  savage  publication  of  the  London  Times  in  '48. 
"When  the  people  were  dying  in  thousands  of  starva- 
tion and  fleeing  a  plague-stricken  country  in  plague- 
stricken  ships,  its  only  sympathy  was  the  blasphem- 
ous exclamation:  "Providence  is  settling  the  Irish 
question.  The  Irish  are  gone — gone  with  a  ven- 
geance, the  Lord  be  praised." 

All  this  time  the  most  of  Ireland  was  under  coer- 
cion, for  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  conveniently 
suspended  as  soon  as  agitation  of  any  kind  made 
much  headway.  When  studying  the  history  of  the 
period,  we  have  oftentimes  to  pause  and  ask  our- 
selves, Is  not  this  the  history  of  the  present  time  ? 

Coercion,  the  atrocious  instrument  for  torturing 
a  people  into  desperation,  for  suppressing  allpeaceful 
expressions  of  public  opinion,  is  now,  as  well  as  then, 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  has  been  almost  continually 
in  force  ever  since. 

In  1832  the  act  abolishing  negro  slavery  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  appropriating  twenty  millions  to 
compensate  the  planters,  was  passed,  and  in  the  fol« 


814  POPCTAtt   HISTORY   OP  IHELAlfD. 

lowing  year  the  "Church  Temporalities  Act"  for 
Ireland  was  passed.  Church  rates  were  abolished; 
but  this  was  only  a  boon  to  the  landlords,  for  they  im- 
mediately raised  the  rents  of  their  unfortunate  ten- 
ants-at-will,  while  the  parsons  were  consoled  by  the 
appropriation  of  one  million  dollars  to  indemnify 
them  for  arrears  of  tithes. 

In  1834  O'Connell  renewed  the  Repeal  agitation, 
and  brought  the  question  before  Parliament.  On  the 
23d  of  April  he  formally  brought  forward  his  motion 
for  a  Repeal  of  the  Union  between  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  The  question  was  debated  for  four 
days.  O'Connell's  greatest  opponent  was  Mr.  Spring 
Rice,  afterwards  Lord  Monteagle.  Of  course,  O'Con- 
nell's motion  was  voted  down.  The  House  of  Peers 
rejected  the  proposition  unanimously,  declaring, 
in  an  address  to  the  King,  their  firm  resolution  to 
maintain  "  the  integrity  of  the  Empire." 

In  December,  1834,  another  tithe-carnage  scene 
took  place  at  Rathcormack,  a  village  in  the  County 
Waterford,  where  the  Protestant  rector  had  seized 
on  the  last  stack  of  corn  owned  by  a  poor  widow. 
The  people  made  some  show  of  resistance,  and  were 
fired  upon  by  the  police  and  yeomen,  who  killed 
and  wounded  several  of  them.  The  excitement  and 
indignation  caused  by  this  murder  was  widespread. 
Archbishop  McHale  wrote  a  public  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  in  which  he  said  :  "  All  the 
united  authorities  and  the  Senate  can  never  annex 
the  conscientious  obligations  of  law  to  enactments 
that  are  contrary  to  right,  reason  and  justice.  And 
hence  the  stubborn  and  unconquerable  resistance 


POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IBELAHD.  815 

of  the  people  of  Ireland  to  those  odious  acts — I  will 
not  call  them  laws — which  have  forced  them  to  pay 
tribute  to  the  teachers  of  an  adverse  creed.  I  shall 
fully  declare  my  own  resolve  ;  I  Lave  leased  a  small 
farm,  just  sufficient  to  qualify  for  the  exercise  of 
this  franchise.  After  paying  the  landlord  his  rent, 
neither  to  parson,  proctor  or  agent  shall  I  consent 
to  pay,  in  the  shape  of  tithes  or  any  other  tax,  a 
penny  which  shall  go  to  the  support  of  the  greatest 
nuisance  in  this  or  any  other  country." 

Such  a  declaration  as  this,  coming  from  such  a 
dignitary  of  the  Catholic  Church,  affirming  that  the 
laws  were  unjust  and  iniquitous  and  should  not  be 
obeyed,  fired  on  the  people  to  greater  resistance,  and 
made  the  authorities  pause  in  their  unchristian  work 
of  robbing  Catholics  for  the  support  of  the  Protest- 
ant Church. 

On  the  morning  of  June  20th,  1837,  William  IV. 
breathed  his  last  in  Windsor  Castle.  There  were 
eulogies,  of  course,  pronounced  upon  his  virtues  and 
noble  qualities,  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  though  all 
the  world  were  fully  aware  that  he  was  a  rough  old 
sailor,  of  an  irascible  temper,  self-willed,  and  stub- 
born almost  beyond  forbearance. 

William  had  left  no  legitimate  children,  and  the 
Crown  passed  therefore  to  the  daughter  of  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Kent.  This  was  the  Princess 
Alexandrina  Victoria,  who  was  born  at  Kensington 
Palace,  on  May  24,  1819. 

The  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Melbourne,  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the 
Marquis  of  Conyngham,  immediately  left  Windsor  on 


81 G  POPULAR   HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 

the  death  of  the  King,  and  waited  on  the  Princess  at 
Kensington,  where  the  Coronation  Oath  was  admin- 
istered to  her. 

When  Victoria  ascended  the  throne,  amidst  the 
rejoicings  of  her  English  subjects,  there  was  little 
or  no  enthusiasm  in  Ireland.  The  people  there  felt 
that  it  mattered  little  to  them  who  reigned  in  Egypt, 
for  their  plagues  and  burdens  were  the  same. 

Within  the  first  three  years  of  her  reign  three 
important  measures  relating  to  Ireland  passed 
through  the  British  Parliament.  Though  on  the 
surface  plausible  laws,  the  serpent  lay  hid  beneath, 
and  like  everything  emanating  from  England  for  Ire- 
land, they  were  rank  with  poison  in  their  conception 
and  application.  These  acts  were  no  other  than  the 
Poor  Law,  the  Tithe  Act  and  the  Law  of  Municipal 
Reform. 

The  Poor  Law  had  been  in  force  in  England  since 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIH.,  the  first  Poor  Law  having 
been  enacted  in  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  that 
monarch's  reign.  Indeed,  such  a  law  had  at  once 
become  necessary  in  England  on  the  suppression  by 
Henry  of  the  Catholic  monasteries,  which  had  been 
endowed  by  charitable  people  with  a  view  princi- 
pally to  the  support  of  the  poor.  Henceforth  pov- 
erty was  regarded  as  a  crime,  and  the  most  brutal 
laws  were  directed  against  beggars.  With  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Reformation,  as  the  non-Catholic  histo- 
rian Cobbett  so  forcibly  points  out,  all  Christian  char- 
ity, all  tender  consideration  for  the  wants  of  the 
poor,  became  things  of  the  past.  This  Poor  Law 
system,  which  was  now  at  length  to  be  applied  to 


POH7LAB   HI8TOBY   OF  IBELAND. 

Ireland,  was  not,  it  is  almost  needless  to  say,  con- 
ceived in  a  philanthropic  or  benevolent  spirit. 

The  sinister  design  of  the  Government  was  at  once 
perceived  by  O'Connell,  who  pointed  out  that  the 
object  of  this  enactment  was  twofold — first,  to  secure 
absolute  control  of  the  great  mass  of  the  poor,  who 
within  the  prison-walls  of  the  workhouse  would  not 
be  likely  to  enter  as  a  factor  into  any  possible  insur- 
rection; and  secondly,  to  promote  the  work  of 
depopulation  of  the  "surplus  inhabitants,"  for  unscru- 
pulous landlords,  seeing  that  the  law  had  made  pro- 
vision for  the  homeless  poor,  would  be  thereby  en- 
couraged in  their  work  of  eviction. 

At  this  period  a  Scotchman  named  Nicholl  was 
commissioned  to  go  to  Ireland  and  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  poor.  He  saw  much  suffering  and 
destitution  in  the  island,  and  reported  that  during 
half  the  year  no  fewer  than  five  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  thousand  persons,  with  two  million  three  hun- 
dred thousand  more  dependent  on  them,  were  in  a 
state  of  utter  destitution.  Upon  the  presentation 
of  Nicholl's  report,  Lord  John  Russell  prepared  and 
introduced  his  Poor  Law  Bill,  which,  in  spite  of  the 
most  strenuous  opposition  of  O'Connell  and  the 
Irish  Hierarchy,  became  law  in  July,  1838.  In  a 
short  time  poorhouses  dotted  the  land,  and  were  fast 
filled  by  the  terrible  impetus  given  to  the  work  of 
eviction. 

This  Poor  Law  system  will  ever  be  regarded  by 
Irishmen  as  one  of  the  most  deadly  of  the  many 
treacherous  laws  which,  under  the  guise  of  friend- 
ship, England  has  enacted  for  Ireland. 


818  POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

The  Tithe  Bill,  the  next  of  these  measures,  became 
law  in  May,  1838.  This  was  a  grossly  dishonest  and 
disingenuous  enactment,  for  while  ostensibly  reliev- 
ing the  tenant  of  the  tithe-charge,  it  in  reality  made 
the  landlord  the  medium  through  which  the  parson 
was  to  receive  his  tithes,  under  the  name  of  "  rent- 
charge."  It  seems  scarcely  credible,  but  it  is  never- 
theless true,  that  in  the  face  of  this,  the  people  were 
assured  that  they  were  relieved  from  the  obnoxious 
tithe-charge. 

The  next  important  measure  was  the  Municipal 
Reform  Act.  Notwithstanding  the  Emancipation 
Act,  Catholics  were  virtually  debarred  from  taking 
part  in  the  municipal  corporations,  which  were 
almost  exclusively  Protestant  in  their  composition, 
there  being  only  two  hundred  Catholics  among  a 
total  of  thirteen  thousand  corporators  in  Ireland. 
To  remedy  this  glaring  injustice,  a  Municipal  Reform 
Bill  was  introduced  into  Parliament  in  1836,  by 
Attorney-General  O'Loghlen.  The  object  of  the 
bill  was  to  render  the  close  corporations  more  repre- 
sentative and  popular  in  their  character,  by  invest- 
ing in  the  citizens,  with  certain  restrictions  as  to 
rating,  the  right  to  elect  town-councilors.  This 
very  reasonable  bill  was  defeated  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  the  defeat  only  made  louder  and  more 
persistent  the  demand  of  the  Irish  people  for  reform. 

Every  year  for  the  next  three  years  (1837-8-9) 
the  bill,  with  certain  modifications,  was  only  passed 
in  the  Commons  to  be  unceremoniously  thrown  out 
in  the  Lords.  Finally,  in  1840,  the  bill,  in  modified 
chape,  passed  both  houses,  and  became  law  on  the 


POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  819 

14th  of  February.  This  enactment  would  certainly 
be  useful  were  it  not  for  the  introduction  of  a  clause 
providing  that  the  office  of  sheriff  should  not  be 
elective  as  in  England,  but  that  the  appointment 
should  rest  with  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  The  injust- 
ice of  this  provision  becomes  apparent  when  it  is 
considered  that  the  functions  of  the  sheriff  are  to 
take  charge  of  the  jury-list.  But  the  Government 
were  not  to  be  deprived  of  an  agency  which  in  the 
subsequent  history  of  Ireland  stood  them  in  good 
need  in  the  manipulation  of  juries.  One  result  of  the 
passage  of  the  Municipal  Keform  Act,  it  may  here 
be  mentioned,  was  the  election  of  Daniel  O'Connell 
as  first  Catholic  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin, 

CHAPTER  IL 

THE  REPEAL  MOVEMENT — THE  MONSTER  MEErraoa — 
ARREST  AND  IMPRISONMENT  or  O'CONNELL  AND  THE 
REPEAL  LEADERS. 

THE  years  1841  and  1842  were  barren  of  import- 
ant events,  but  the  year  1843  will  ever  be  memo- 
rable in  Irish  history  as  the  Repeal  Year.  O'Connell 
had  in  1839  organized  what  is  called  the  "Precursor 
Society,"  a  name  given  it  from  the  fact  that  this 
organization  was  to  make  a  final  appeal  to,  the  Brit- 
ish Government  for  justice,  and  if  this  were  denied, 
the  banner  of  Repeal  of  the  Union  was  to  be  un- 
furled. The  appeal  was  unanswered,  and  Repeal  be- 
came the  watchword.  O'Connell  went  heart  and  soul 
into  the  new  movement.  He  called  for  three  millions 
of  enrolled  Repealers,  and  decided  to  get  up  and  ad- 


g20  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

dress  meetings  throughout  the  country,  and  in  order 
to  do  this  the  more  effectually  he  ceased  attending 
the  London  Parliament.  In  the  Dublin  Corporation 
he  moved  his  famous  resolution  for  the  adoption  of 
a  petition  to  Parliament  demanding  a  repeal  of  the 
union  -with  England — in  other  words,  a  recurrence 
to  the  Irish  Parliament  of  1800,  in  which  Ireland 
had  her  own  House  of  Peers  and  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  English  Sovereign  being  also  Sovereign  of 
Ireland.  His  speech  in  support  of  this  resolution 
was  a  masterpiece  of  eloquence,  and  the  petition  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  forty-one  to  fifteen.  The  peti- 
tion was  soon  afterwards  adopted  by  the  Cork  Cor- 
poration. 

O'Connell  now  left  Dublin  for  the  provinces,  and 
then  followed  the  monster  repeal  gatherings  all  over 
the  island.  Wherever  he  went  to  speak,  the  people, 
•with  the  priests  at  their  head,  turned  out  en  masse. 
An  idea  of  the  hold  he  had  acquired  on  the  people 
may  be  gathered  from  the  simple  statement  that  at 
the  meeting  at  Tara  no  less  than  four  hundred  thou- 
sand people  were  present  1 

The  great  Irish  Tribune  at  the  outset  proclaimed 
his  intention  to  adhere  strictly  to  legal  and  constitu- 
tional method  in  the  achievement  of  his  purpose. 
"  Is  it  by  force  or  violence,  bloodshed  or  turbulence," 
he  cried  at  one  of  those  meetings,  "that  I  shall 
achieve  this  victory,  [repeal],  dear  above  all  earthly 
considerations  to  my  heart  ?  No  I  perish  the  thought 
forever.  I  will  do  it  by  legal,  peaceable  and  consti- 
tutional means  alone — by  the  electricity  of  public 
opinion,  by  the  moral  combination  of  good  men, 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  gOJ. 

and  by  the  enrollment  of  four  millions  of  Repealers. 
I  am  a  disciple  of  that  sect  of  politicians  who  believe 
that  the  greatest  of  all  sublunary  blessings  is  too 
dearly  purchased  at  the  expense  of  a  single  drop  of  human 
blood."  This  last  assertion  was  of  course  carrying 
his  theory  to  a  ridiculous  extreme,  but  it  goes  to 
show  how  earnest  and  emphatic  was  his  belief  incon- 
stitutional  agitation  for  the  redress  of  grievances. 
O'ConnelTs  injunctions  to  the  public  to  preserve  the 
peace  were,  however,  strictly  obeyed.  One  circum- 
stance which  contributed  greatly  to  the  preservation 
of  order  at  O'Connell's  leviathan  gatherings  was  the 
fact  that  the  vast  mass  of  the  people  had  become 
disciples  of  the  great  Father  Mathew,  "The  Apostle 
of  Temperance." 

Father  Mathew  was  in  truth  one  of  the  greatest 
benefactors  of  the  Irish  race,  and  of  humanity,  the 
world  over.  The  great  temperance  advocate  was 
born  at  Thomastown  House,  near  Cashel,  County 
Tipperary,  on  the  10th  of  October,  1790.  The  fam- 
ily was  of  Welsh  origin,  and  seem  to  have  been  set- 
tled in  Tipperary  since  the  civil  war  of  1641.  Young 
Theobald  was  sent  at  an  early  age  to  Maynooth  Col- 
lege, to  be  educated  for  the  priesthood  ;  but  for 
some  slight  transgression  he  retired  from  that  college, 
and  completed  his  education  for  the  priesthood  at 
the  Capuchin  College,  Kilkenny,  where  he  was  or- 
dained in  1814.  The  first  few  years  of  his  ministry 
were  spent  in  Kilkenny,  after  which  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Cork  City. 

It  is  often  erroneously  considered  that  Father 
Mathew  was  the  founder  of  the  temperance  more- 


823  fOFULAB  HISTOBY  OT  IBZLAND. 

ment  This  honor,  however,  belongs  to  a  little  "band 
of  Cork  Quakers,  the  leading  spirit  of  which  was  one 
Lonest  William  Martin.  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  in  his 
interesting  work  "New  Ireland,"  describes  very 
graphically  how  Father  Mathew  was  led  to 
espouse  the  total  abstinence  cause.  "  One  day,  while 
honest  Bill  Martin  and  Father  Mathew  were  making 
their  morning  visitation  of  a  hospital,  the  constantly- 
suggested  theme  of  the  miseries  which  drink  brought 
on  the  people  came  uppermost  Mr.  Martin,  in  a 
burst  of  passionate  grief  or  invective,  suddenly 
stopped  and  turned  to  his  companion,  exclaiming: 
'  Oh !  Theobald  Mathew,  Theobald  Mathew,  what  thou 
couldst  do,  if  thou  wouldst  only  take  up  this  work  of 
banishing  the  fiend  that  desolates  the  houses  of  thy 
people  sol"  The  words  of  the  honest  Quaker  fell 
on  Father  Mathew'e  ears  with  a  wondrous  power. 
For  i  lay s  and  nights  afterwards  he  pondered  on  the 
words  of  William  Martin,  and  one  morning  after 
lising  from  prayer  he  exclaimed  aloud:  'Here  goes, 
iu  the  name  of  God !'  and  instantly  repaired  to  the 
office  of  Mr.  Martin  and  announced  his  intention  of 
joining  the  little  temperance  band.  The  good 
Quaker  in  the  fullness  of  his  joy  actually  wept  like  a 
child,  and  embracing  the  friar,  cried  out,  "  Thank 
God!  thank  God!'" 

Thus  entered  Father  Mathew  in  his  great  crusade 
against  drunkenness.  The  announcement  of  his 
accession  to  the  "teetotal"  band,  which, though  re- 
spected in  Cork,  were  nevertheless  unable  to  make 
much  impression  on  the  masses  of  the  people,  cre- 
ated something  of  a  sensation  in  the  city.  Men 


POPTTLAB  HISTORY  OP  IRELAND.  823 

began  to  loot  at  the  question  more  seriously,  they 
began  to  think.  The  temperance  gatherings  at  once 
swelled  into  large  proportions,  and  Father  Mathew, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  originator  of  the  move- 
ment, established  an  organization  under  his  own 
presidency,  on  the  10th  of  April,  1838.  Thenceforth 
Father  Mathew  pushed  forward  the  great  movement 
with  all  the  intense  enthusiasm  of  his  nature.  He 
traveled  all  over  the  island,  administering  the  pledge 
to  thousands.  In  the  Orange  North,  he  was  re- 
ceived with  as  much  warmth  as  in  "  Rebel  Cork." 
He  did  not  confine  his  labors  to  Ireland,  but  cross- 
ing the  Channel  in  1843,  preached  the  gospel  ol 
temperance  in  London  and  the  large  English  cities. 
In  1849,  he  visited  America,  where  he  remained 
till  the  close  of  1851,  conferring  untold  benefit  on 
thousands  of  his  own  race  and  of  others.  After  this 
period  his  health  broke  down  and  he  was  compelled 
to  abandon  his  labors  in  the  cause  of  temperance. 
This  great  and  good  man  died  at  Queenstown,  on 
the  8th  of  December,  1856,  universally  lamented. 

As  we  have  said,  Father  Mathew's  labors  contri- 
buted greatly  to  O'Conn ell's  wonderful  success  in 
keeping  the  people  within  the  bounds  of  the  law, 
while  at  the  same  time  firing  them  with  the  ardent 
determination  to  get  back  their  native  Parliament. 
Throughout  the  summer  of  1843,  monster  Repeal 
gatherings  were  held  all  over  the  island. 

The  Government  did  not  view  these  things  im- 
passively; on  the  27th  of  April,  Mr.  Lane  FJX 
Tory  member,  gave  notice  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
'*  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Her  Majesty's  Government 


824  FOPULAB   HISTORY  OF  IRELAXB. 

to  take  immediate  steps  to  put  an  end  to  the  agita- 
tion for  Repeal";  and  on  the  9th  of  May,  an  Arms 
Bill  for  Ireland  was  introduced  by  Lord  Eliot,  Chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland.  This  bill  provided  :  "  That 
no  man  could  keep  arms  of  any  sort,  without  first 
having  a  certificate  from  two  householders  rated  to 
the  poor  at  above  £20,  and  then  producing  that 
certificate  to  the  Justices  at  Sessions."  If  the  appli- 
cation for  arms  was  granted,  they  were  to  be  branded 
and  registered.  After  procuring  a  license,  it  was 
forbidden  to  remove,  sell  or  bequeath  any  arms 
without  a  new  registry.  To  have  a  pike  or  spear,  or 
instrument  serving  for  a  pike  or  spear,  was  punish- 
able by  seven  years'  transportation.  To  prevent  as 
far  as'possible  the  manufacture  of  pikes,  blacksmiths 
were  required  to  take  out  a  license  to  pursue  their 
trade.  Domiciliary  visits  by  the  police  on  the  mere 
"  suspicion  "  of  a  magistrate  was  also  a  feature  of  the 
precious  bill  But  the  most  odious  provision  of  the 
bill  was  that  which  declared  that  should  any 
weapon  be  found  in  any  house,  out-house  or  stock- 
yard, the  occupier  was  to  be  convicted,  unless  he  could 
prove  that  it  was  there  without  his  knowledge. 

The  introduction  of  this  despotic  measure  only 
gave  a  further  impetus  to  the  Repeal  movement. 
O'Connell  was  serene  and  imperturbable,  the  people 
kept  \vithin  the  limits  of  the  law,  and  the  huge  gath- 
erings became  huger  than  ever.  A  powerful  agency 
in  keeping  alive  the  spirit  of  patriotism  was  the 
Nation  newspaper,  founded  in  the  autumn  of  1842 
by  Mr.  (now  Sir)  Charles  Gavan  Dnffy,  with  whom 
were  associated  Thomas  Davis  and  John  Dillon. 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAHD.  £26 

The  Natwn  was  a  surprise  to  friends  and  foes  alike. 
It  was  conducted  with  consummate  ability,  and  its 
galaxy  of  writers  shed  imperishable  lustre  on  Ireland. 

The  Arms  Bill  was  most  strenuously  resisted  by  the 
patriotic  Irish  members,  conspicuous  among  whom 
was  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien,  who  had  not  up  to  that  time 
joined  the  ranks  of  the  Repealers.  But  resistance 
was  futile,  and  the  Arms  Bill  became  law.  Simul- 
taneously with  the  passage  of  the  Arms  Act,  addition- 
al troops,  principally  English  and  Scotch,  were  dis- 
patched to  Ireland.  War-steamers  cruised  around 
the  coasts,  and  the  police  barracks  were  fortified. 
O'Connell  and  his  Repealers,  however,  were  not 
daunted  by  these  warlike  displays,  and  the  meetings 
continued  to  be  held  with  intensified  enthusiasm. 
Many  of  the  Irish  members  quitted  Westminster 
and  gathered  round  O'Connell,  believing  that  the 
battle  for  Repeal  could  be  most  successfully  waged 
in  Ireland.  The  Government  tried  by  divers  petty 
persecutions  to  goad  the  people  into  rebellion. 
Catholic  justices  of  the  peace  who  had  become  Re- 
pealers were  deprived  of  their  commissions  by  the 
Lord  Chancellor  (Sir  Edward  Sugden),  in  the  most 
insulting  manner.  Some  twenty  magistrates,  includ- 
ing O'Connell  and  Lord  French,  were  thus  removed. 
O'Connell  retaliated  by  having  the  dismissed  magis- 
trates appointed  as  "arbitrators,"  and  calling  on  the 
people  in  all  disputes  to  apply  to  the  "  arbitrators  " 
in  preference  to  the  Queen's  justices. 

A.  great  source  of  uneasiness  to  the  British  Gov- 
ernment was  the  fact  that  in  the  United  States  the 
Repeal  movement  was  taken  up  as  ardently  as  in  Ire- 


826  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAOT). 

land.  In  the  large  cities  of  the  Kepublic  meet- 
ings were  held  week  after  week,  while  O'Connell's 
exchequer  was  considerably  augmented  by  remit- 
tances from  America. 

French  expression  of  sympathy  for  Ireland  was 
not  wanting  either,  and  the  Paris  Constitutionnel  was 
outspoken  in  its  encouragement  of  O'Connell  and 
the  Eepeal  movement. 

Thus  backed  up  by  his  people  at  home,  and  en- 
couraged from  abroad,  the  monster  meetings  went 
on.  At  the  meeting  in  Mallow,  at  which  at  least  two 
hundred  thousand  people  attended,  O'Connell  in  the 
course  of  his  speech  said  :  "  Suppose  for  a  moment 
that  England  found  the  Act  of  Union  to  operate  not 
for  her  benefit — if,  instead  of  decreasing  her  debt, 
it  added  to  her  taxation  and  liabilities,  and  made  her 
burden  more  onerous — and,  if  she  felt  herself  entitled 
to  call  for  a  repeal  of  that  act,  I  ask  Peel  and  Wel- 
lington, and  let  them  deny  it  if  they  dare,  and  if 
they  did  they  would  be  the  scorn  and  by-word  of 
the  world,  would  she  not  have  the  right  to  call  for  a 
repeal  of  that  act  And  what  are  Irishmen  that  they 
should  be  denied  the  same  privilege  ?  Have  we  not 
the  ordinary  courage  of  Englishmen  ?  Are  we  to  be 
trampled  under  foot  ?  Oh,  they  shall  never  trample 
me,  at  least  I  was  wrong — they  may  trample  me, 
under  foot — I  say  they  may  trample  me,  but  it  will 
be  my  dead  body  they  will  trample  on,  not  the  living 
man  I"  Thunders  of  applause  greeted  these  words, 
and  the  people  felt  that  in  the  last  extremity,  at 
least,  O'Connell  would  not  adhere  to  his  "peace 
policy." 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OP  IRELAND.  827 

A  grand  and  imposing  meeting  was  that  held  at 
"  Tara  of  the  Kings,"  in  the  County  Meath,  on  the 
15th  of  August.  A  vast  multitude  was  present,  esti- 
mated in  the  Nation  at  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  but  Mitchell  in  his  history,  thinks  that  a 
gross  exaggeration,  and  places  the  number  at  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Probably  a  fair  esti- 
mate would  be  half  a  million. 

O'Connell  stood  beside  the  "  Stone  of  Destiny," 
used  in  long-past  ages  for  the  coronation  of  the 
Monarchs  of  Ireland  ;  beneath  him  was  spread  a 
boundless  human  ocean.  It  was  a  truly  grand  and 
impressive  spectacle. 

He  successively  addressed  meetings  of  monster 
proportions  in  Roscommon,  Clifden  and  Loughrea, 
but  the  crowning  success  of  all  was  the  leviathan 
gathering  which  met  at  Mullaghmast,  in  the  County 
Kildare,  on  the  1st  of  October. 

Mullaghmast  was  memorable  in  Irish  history  as 
the  scene  of  the  treacherous  massacre  of  the  Chiefs 
of  Offaly  and  Leix  with  hundreds  of  their  clansmen, 
by  the  English  of  the  Pale,  in  1577.  Fully  half  a 
milh'on  people  attended  this  meeting,  and  when 
O'Connell  appeared  in  his  aldermanic  robes,  sur- 
rounded by  members  of  town  corporations  and  distin- 
guished priests  and  laymen,  he  received  an  ovation 
such  as  a  king  might  envy.  The  eminent  Irish 
sculptor  John  Hogan,  amid  breathless  silence,  came 
forward  and  placed  on  the  head  of  "  the  uncrowned 
King  of  Ireland  "  an  exquisitely  embroidered  cap, 
fashioned  after  the  ancient  Irish  crown,  exclaiming 
at  the  same  time  :  "  Sir,  I  only  regret  this  cap  is  not 


gog  POPULAB  HISTORY  OF 

of  gold  ! "  And  half  a  million  shouts  rent  the  air  in 
approbation  of  the  sentiment.  The  great  tribune 
once  more  assured  his  audience  that  England  could 
not  continue  much  longer  to  refuse  their  just  de- 
mand. He  told  them  that  he  had  already  prepared 
his  "plan  for  the  renewed  action  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liament," as  previously  submitted  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Repeal  Association  in  Dublin.  This  Parlia- 
ment was  to  consist  of  three  hundred  members,  and 
O'Connell  had  already  gone  so  far  as  to  announce 
that  he  would  convene  three  hundred  representa- 
tive Irishmen  in  Dublin,  in  December.  The  people 
were  jubilant,  and  all  believed  that  the  full  frui- 
tion of  their  hopes  was  near  at  hand.  Little  did 
they  dream  that  all  those  fair  hopes  were  to  be 
blasted  in  the  near  future,  and  that  the  very  assem- 
blage at  which  they  were  now  present  was  to  be  the 
last  of  the  monster  Repeal  meetings  of  Ireland. 
Tet  so  an  adverse  destiny  decided. 

The  Government  now  became  thoroughly  alarm- 
ed, and  determined  to  grapple  in  deadly  earnest 
with  the  Repeal  movement.  But  as  this  movement 
was  carried  on  within  constitutional  lines,  some  pre- 
text for  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
was  wanted. 

England,  however,  always  needed  but  a  very 
flimsy  pretext  for  interference  with  the  rights  of 
"the  mere  Irish,"  and  the  opportunity  soon  pre- 
sented itself.  A  great  metropolitan  gathering 
was  announced  to  be  held  at  historic  Clontarf,  on 
Sunday,  the  8th  of  October.  For  da}'s  previously 
tho  subject  of  the  great  meeting  was  uppermost  in 


POPtTLAB  HISTOBY  OP  IRELAHD.  829 

men's  minds.  It  was  the  great  topic  of  discourse 
in  Dublin  and  for  miles  around.  All  preparations 
for  the  great  event  were  completed,  when  lo!  outside 
the  police  barracks,  and  on  the  dead-walls  of  Dub- 
lin, on  the  day  before  the  meeting,  and  just  as  the 
shades  of  evening  were  falling,  appeared  ominous 
proclamations,  prohibiting  the  projected  meeting  to 
take  place !  Here  was  a  dilemma  for  O'Connell. 
He  had  frequently  dared  the  Government  to  attack 
him.  Well,  they  have  now  at  length  thrown  down 
the  gage  of  battle ;  would  he  take  it  up  ? 

The  object  of  the  Government  in  keeping  back 
the  proclamation  until  almost  the  last  moment 
was  apparent.  It  was  simply  to  goad  the  people 
into  insurrection.  But  O'Connell,  who,  it  had  now 
become  apparent,  never  seriously  contemplated 
physical  resistance  to  the  authorities,  took  imme- 
diate steps  to  prevent  what  to  him  seemed  a  terri 
ble  calamity.  He  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding 
the  contemplated  meeting,  and  calling  on  the  people 
to  obey  the  orders  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  This 
proclamation,  aided  by  the  almost  superhuman  exer- 
tions of  the  members  of  the  Repeal  Committee,  had 
the  desired  effect,  and  when  the  troops — horse, 
foot  and  artillery — in  strong  force  reached  Clontarf, 
they  encountered  no  enemy.  The  Government  at 
once  instituted  proceedings  against  O'Connell  and 
eight  others,  including  John  O'Connell  (the  Lib- 
erator's son),  who  was  at  the  time  Member  of  Par- 
liament for  Kilkenny  ;  Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  then 
i  !;tor  of  the  Nation;  Rev.  Father  Tyrrel,  of  Lusk, 
C  .unty  Dublin j  Rev.  Father  Tierney,  of  Clontibret, 


830  POHJLAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

County  Monaghan;  Richard  Barrett,  editor  of  the 
Pilot,  Dublin;  Thomas  Steele,  "Head  Pacificator 
of  Ireland";  Dr.  Gray,  of  the  Freeman's  Journal; 
and  Thomas  M.  Ray,  Secretary  of  the  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation. Of  the  nine  traversers,  Father  Tyrrel  died 
during  the  course  of  the  trials,  his  death  being 
caused  by  over-exertion  in  preventing  his  parish- 
ioners from  going  to  the  Clontarf  meeting. 

The  trials  extended  over  a  period  of  several 
months,and  meanwhile  the  Repeal  agitation  went  on 
apace.  A  large  hall — christened  by  O'Connell 
"  Conciliation  Hall,"  to  typify  the  necessity  of  all 
Irishmen  uniting  and  sinking  party  differences — 
which  had  been  in  progress  for  some  time,  was  now 
completed,  and  on  the  22d  of  October  was  opened 
with  great  enthusiasm.  This,  the  first  meeting  was 
a  monster  gathering,  and  was  presided  over  by 
John  Augustus  O'Neill,  of  Bonowen  Castle,  a  re- 
tired cavalry  officer  and  formerly  M.  P.  of  Hull, 
England.  This  meeting  was  signalized  by  William 
Smith  O'Brien — who  had  up  to  that  time  been  an 
obedient  Whig — giving  in  his  adhesion  to  the  popu- 
lar cause.  O'Brien  was  the  representative  of  the 
great  and  ancient  house  of  Thomond,  his  family 
was  Protestant,  and  by  all  social  ties  was  bound  to 
the  pro-British  faction  in  Ireland.  His  accession 
to  the  Repeal  ranks,  therefore,  was  hailed  with  joy 
by  the  people  and  with  alarm  on  the  part  of  their 
enemies.  His  noble  and  patriotic  example  was  fol- 
lowed by  many  other  Protestants  of  high  social 
position ;  the  funds  of  the  Repeal  Association 
swelled  into  large  proportions,  and  a  fresh  impetus 


POPULAB   HISTORY  OP   IRELAND.  g31 

was  given  to  the  national  movement.  Friendly 
encouragement  and  sympathy,  as  well  as  pecuniary 
aid  from  America,  was  not  wanting,  and  the  action 
of  the  Government  seemed  altogether  to  have  a 
contrary  effect  to  what  was  intended. 

After  a  farce  of  a  trial  in  which  a  packed  jury, 
composed  exclusively  of  Protestants,  was  impan- 
eled by  the  vilest  methods  known  to  a  vile  Govern- 
ment, the  traversers  were  found  guilty,  and  on  the 
30th  of  May,  1844,  O'Connell  was  sentenced  to 
twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  £2,000, 
the  others  receiving  lighter  sentences.  An  appeal  was 
taken  to  the  House  of  Lords  on  a  writ  ctf  error,  and 
in  the  meantime  O'Connell  and  his  fellow-prisoners 
were  confined  in  Richmond  Penitentiary. 

But  the  victory  of  the  Government  was  a  Pyrrhic 
one.  Repeal  meetings  continued  to  be  held,  and 
patriotic  Protestants  were  more  and  more  drawn 
into  the  popular  ranks.  Smith  O'Brien  flung  him- 
self into  the  fight  with  ardor,  and  his  services  at  this 
juncture  were  invaluable.  After  various  delays,  the 
appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords  was  heard  in  Septem- 
ber, 1844,  the  case  being  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
Law  Lords  of  that  assembly.  Three  of  the  five 
Law  Lords,  Denman,  Cottenham  and  Campbell, 
were  in  favor  of  reversing  the  sentence,  and  it  was 
accordingly  set  aside.  The  Lord  Chancellor  (Lynd- 
hurst)  and  Lord  Brougham  voted  in  the  minority. 
The  memorable  words  Lord  Denman  employed  in 
condemning  the  manner  in  which  the  jury-lists 
were  obtained  are  well  known  ;  such  practices,  he 
declared,  would  make  of  the  law  "  a  mockery,  a  de- 


832  POPtTLAB  HOTORY  OF  IRBLAK1X 

lusion  and  a  snare.**  There  was  great  rejoicing 
throughout  Ireland  over  the  action  of  the  Lords, 
and  a  monster  triumphal  procession  escorted  the 
prisoner*  on  their  liberation  through  the  streets  of 
Dublin  to  O'ConnelPs  residence.  As  O'Connell'a 
carriage  came  in  front  of  the  old  Parliament 
House,  the  Liberator  rose  from  his  seat  and  pointed 
to  the  stately  portico.  This  little  incident,  eloquent 
however  in  its  significance,  was  received  with 
thundering  cheers. 

The  people  now  looked  forward  with  almost  ago- 
nizing suspense  to  O'Connell's  next  move.  His  power 
was  still  unquestioned  ;  indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  at 
any  period  of  his  wonderful  career  Irishmen  were 
more  ready  to  obey  his  behests.  In  their  steady  and 
unfaltering  allegiance  to  their  leader,  they  had  made 
many  and  bitter  sacrifices,  and  they  were  ready  to 
do  and  dare  much  more.  Indeed,  they  would  have 
hailed  with  joy  a  declaration  of  war  from  O'Con- 
nell  on  the  English  garrison  in  Ireland,  and  there  is 
little  doubt  that  if  they  had  been  properly  armed 
they  would  have  made  short  work  of  British 
rule  in  the  island.  But  O'Connell  wasnow  a  changed 
man  ;  he  was  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  and  his 
incarceration  had  had  a  visible  effect  on  his  system 
and  spirits.  In  his  speech  there  was  henceforth  an 
absence  of  that  bold  and  defiant  tone  which  had  so 
often  thrilled  his  people.  He  gradually  alienated 
from  himself  the  more  fiery  spirits  of  the  Associa- 
tion, until  finally  an  open  rupture  was  created  be- 
tween him  and  the  "Young  Ireland  "party,  of  which 
more  shall  be  said  by-and-by.  Few  even  among 


POPULAB  HISTORY   OP   IRELAND.  833 

O'Connell's  most  obedient  followers  could  indorse 
his  declaration  that  "liberty  was  not  worth  the 
shedding  of  a  drop  of  human  blood  !"  But  O'Con- 
nell  when  he  gave  expression  to  this  absurd  doc- 
trine was  entirely  shattered  in  health,  and  soften- 
ing of  the  brain  had  already  set  in.  Indeed,  he 
might  now  be  said  to  have  come  to  the  end  of  his 
great  career.  The  Repeal  movement  dragged  on  in 
a  half-hearted  manner;  its  power  for  usefuluess  was 
gone. 

It  will  be  well  just  now  to  glance  at  some  Govern- 
mental measures  which  were  heralded  forth  with  a 
great  flourish  of  trumpets  as  calculated  to  be  of 
inestimable  benefit  to  Ireland.  On  the  2d  of  April, 
1845,  Sir  Robert  Peel  sent  what  he  called  a  "  mes- 
sage of  peace  to  Ireland,"  in  the  shape  of  a  pro- 
posed bill  providing  for  a  considerable  increase  in 
the  grant  to  the  College  of  Maynooth.  This  con- 
cession, such  as  it  was,  was  made  at  a  time  when 
war  was  threatened  between  England  and  the  Uni- 
ted States,  owing  to  a  dispute  about  Oregon.  An- 
other of  those  "'ameliorative  "  measures  was  the 
bill  ci'eating  and  endowing  the  three  "  Queen's  Col- 
leges." O'Connell  vehemently  denounced  "  the  god- 
less colleges,"  and,  although  some  of  the  clergy,  and 
even  some  of  the  bishops,  at  first  regarded  them  as 
a  substantial  boon,  all  were  afterwards  brought 
around  to  the  views  of  O'Connell.  Those  ingeniously 
devised  measures,  however,  accomplished  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Government  in  tending  to  still  further 
disintegrate  the  Repeal  Association.  Religious  dis- 
putes were  engendered  by  the  Colleges  Bill,  and 


€151  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

Protestants  were  alienated  from  the  Association. 
The  next  of  those  so-called  remedial  measures  was 
the  "  Compensation  of  Tenants  in  Ireland"  Bill.  This 
bill  proposed  to  do  away  with  tenant-right  by  com- 
pensating tenants  for  all  future  improvements.  It 
also  proposed  to  get  rid  of  a  portion  of  Ireland's 
"surplus  population"  by  a  comprehensive  scheme 
of  emigration.  Provision  was  likewise  made  where- 
by large  numbers  of  laborers  were  to  be  employed 
on  the  waste  lands  of  Ireland.  This  bill,  which 
was  denounced  by  Irish  landlords  and  tenants 
alike,  was  defeated  chiefly  through  the  opposition 
of  the  landlord  influence,  who  would  not  admit  that 
tenants  had  any  right  whatsoever  to  "compensa- 
tion." Thus  Peel's  scheme  for  disposing  of  Ire- 
land's "surplus  population"  was  frustrated;  but 
his  fell  purpose  was  soon  to  be  accomplished  by  a 
more  terrible  and  deadly  agency — viz.,  the  famine. 
Misfortunes  to  nations  as  to  individuals  seldom 
come  singly,  and  the  gloom  which  was  now  begin- 
ning to  overshadow  the  island  was  still  further 
deepened  by  the  death  of  the  pure  and  noble 
Thomas  Davis,  which  sad  event  for  Ireland  took 
place  in  September,  1845. 

CHAPTER  m. 

THE  FAMINE  PERIOD. — FRIGHTFUL  SCENES. — ENGLAND'S 

HEARTLESS  TREATMENT  OF  THE  FAMINE. — FOREIGN 

AID  AND  SYMPATHY. — SPLIT  IN  THE  REPEAL  BANES. 

—THE  VAGRANCY  Aor. — DEATH  OF  O'CONNELL. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  Irish  people  were  known  to 

depend  for  subsistence  principally  on  the  potato  crop. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  835 

Now,  the  long  continuance  of  cold  wet  weather  in 
the  Summer  of  1845  all  but  completely  ruined  this 
crop.  The  blight  was  startlingly  sudden  in  its  rav- 
ages, and  what  at  one  time  promised  to  be  an  abun- 
dant harvest  was  in  the  short  space  of  a  week 
transformed  into  blasted  and  withered  fields.  A 
cry  of  terror  arose  in  the  land.  Before  the  famine 
had  really  set  in  hundreds  of  people  perished  of 
hunger  on  the  roadsides.  The  evils  of  an  alien 
Parliament  never  received  a  more  terrible  illustra- 
tion than  in  the  bungling  incompetence — rather,  we 
should  say,  the  criminal  apathy — of  the  English 
Government  to  meet  the  dreadful  crisis  in  Ireland. 
Not  but  that  they  got  repeated  warnings  of  the 
dreaded  calamity  that  was  impending.  As  early  as 
October,  the  Irish  Mansion  House  Belief  Committee 
implored  the  Government  to  call  Parliament  toge- 
ther and  throw  open  the  ports.  The  Government 
refused.  The  Corporation  of  Dublin  sent  a  memo- 
rial to  the  Queen  praying  her  to  convene  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  to  recommend  the  appropriation  of  some 
public  money  for  public  works,  especially  railways, 
in  Ireland.  The  Town  Council  of  Belfast  took  sim- 
ilar action.  And  on  the  8th  of  December,  O'Connell, 
addressing  the  Repeal  Association,  said  :  "  If  they 
ask  me  what  are  my  propositions  for  relief  of  the 
distress,  I  answer,  first,  tenant-right.  I  would  pro- 
pose a  law,  giving  to  every  man  his  own.  I  would 
give  the  landlord  his  land,  and  a  fair  rent  for  it ;  but 
I  would  give  the  tenant  compensation  for  every  shil- 
ling he  might  have  laid  out  on  the  land  in  permanent 
improvements.  And  what  next  do  I  propose  ?  Repeal 


CC6  tOrULAR  HISTOKY  OF  IEELAKD. 

of  the  Union."  Further  on  he  said  that  if  Ireland 
had  her  own  Parliament,  the  ports  would  be  thrown 
open,  and  that  "the  abundant  crops  with  which 
Heaven  has  blessed  her  would  be  kept  for  the  peo- 
ple of  Ireland."  Indeed,  almost  the  universal  voice 
of  Ireland  called  for  the  opening  of  the  ports.  But 
the  Government  was  inexorable,  and  the  voice  of 
the  nation  was  unheeded.  The  executive,  indeed, 
on  the  first  appearance  of  the  blight,  commissioned 
Messrs.  Play  fair,  Lindley,  and  Dr.  (now  Sir  Robert) 
Kane,  to  examine  and  report  upon  the  nature  of  the 
potato  disease,  &c. 

Meanwhile  immense  shipments  to  England  of 
grain  (the  Irish  grain  crops  of  '45  were  abundant), 
cattle,  sheep  and  hogs  from  Ireland  were  daily  tak- 
ing place.  Indeed  we  have  it  from  a  Government 
source — Thorn's  Official  Directory — that  more  grain 
was  shipped  from  Ireland  to  England  in  1845 — the 
first  of  the  famine  years — than  in  any  previous  year  1 
The  exports  of  grain  and  cattle  to  England  in  '45 
amounted  to  about  seventeen  millions  sterling. 
Most  of  the  Irish  grain  crops  was  gone  by  the  first 
of  January,  '46. 

At  length,  after  much  valuable  time  was  lost,  dur- 
ing which  hundreds  perished  of  hanger,  Parliament 
assembled  late  in  January,  1846. 

Theirs/  measure  introduced  was,  characteristically 
enough — a  coercion  bill  I  Driven  to  desperation,  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  that  some  of  the  unfortunate 
peasantry  wreaked  bloody  ven^  ance  on  their  heart- 
less oppressors,  who  were  only  too  ready  to  take 
advantage  of  the  terrible  situation  in  Ireland  to 


K)PULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  837 

carry  on  the  congenial  work  of  eviction.  Those 
agrarian  outrages  afforded  the  Government  a  pretext 
to  introduce  a  most  vile  and  odious  coercive  meas- 
ure. The  other  measure  which  was  introduced  to 
meet  the  Irish  crisis  was  a  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the 
corn  laws.  It  was  also  proposed  to  abolish  the 
duties  on  foreign  beef,  mutton  and  bacon.  Though 
this  measure  looked  plausible  enough  on  the  surface, 
it  was  in  reality  a  cruel  delusion.  Ireland  imported 
no  corn  or  beef — on  the  contrary,  she  exported  those 
commodities — and  the  bill  might  thus  be  said  to  be 
for  England's  exclusive  benefit,  that  country  being  a 
large  importer  of  those  staples.  The  measure  waa 
in  truth  adverse  to  the  interests  of  the  Irish 
farmer,  who  hitherto  had  an  advantage  over 
the  foreign  corn-growers  in  the  English  market,  be- 
cause there  was  a  duty  on  foreign  but  not  on  Irish 
provisions.  Henceforth,  the  agricultural  produce 
of  the  world  was  to  be  admitted  on  the  same  terms, 
to  the  evident  disadvantage  of  the  Irish  farmer. 
The  vast  mass  of  the  Irish  people  were  obliged,  as 
usual,  to  sell  their  corn  and  cattle  in  order  to  meet 
the  rent.  Throwing  open  the  ports,  therefore,  in  so 
far  as  that  course  was  intended  to  grapple  with  the 
famine,  was  a  mockery.  The  Irish  ports  were  open 
to  English  ships,  to  carry  away  their  cargoes  of 
cattle  and  corn,  while  the  Irish  people  were  being 
decimated  by  hunger.  If  during  those  terrible 
times  the  Irish  ports  had  been  closed  against  all 
exports — a  precaution  which  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  taken  had  Ireland  had  a  native  Parlia- 
ment— there  would  have  been  no  famine. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

As  immediate  relief  measures,  a  grant  was  made  o! 
£50,000  for  public  works,  and  an  equal  amount  for 
drainage  of  estates — both  grants  being  made  to  the 
Commissioners  of  Public  Works,  and  to  be  adminis- 
tered by  that  body.  The  utter  inadequacy  of  this 
grant  must  have  been  as  apparent  to  the  English 
ministry  as  it  was  to  the  Irish  people.  Mr.  Secre- 
tary Labouchere,  in  a  statement  in  Parliament,  in 
that  very  session,  estimated  the  total  money-loss 
accruing  by  the  potato-blight  at  sixteen  millions  ster- 
ling. Now  to  replace  this  absolutely  necessary  food 
by  foreign  corn,  taking  into  account  the  higher 
price  of  grain  over  potatoes,  besides  freight,  an  ap- 
propriation of  twenty  millions  sterling  would  have 
been  necessary.  Thus  the  actual  grant  was  about 
the  two-hundredth  part  of  what  the  occasion  de- 
manded I  Miserably  inadequate  as  it  was,  no  effect- 
ive measures  were  taken  for  its  prompt  application. 
The  first  three  months  of  the  year  passed  away,  and 
the  people  found  no  relief.  There  was  forsooth  much 
preparation  in  the  way  of  appointing  commissions 
and  clerks,  and  preparing  stationery,  schedules, 
specifications  and  red-tape. 

Some  of  the  Repeal  leaders,  including  O'Connell, 
Smith  O'Brien  and  others,  proceeded  to  London  in 
March,  to  endeavor  to  stir  up  the  Ministry,  or  at 
least  to  ascertain  their  intentions.  As  to  the  relief 
grants,  Smith  O'Brien  declared  in  the  House  that  not 
one  single  guinea  had  up  to  that  time  been  expended 
on  the  starving  people.  He  wn-  iiaughtily  told  that 
the  Government  had  taken  tic  matter  in  hand, 
and  that  was  sufficient  It  was  evident  that  no 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  839 

satisfaction  could  be  had  from  the  Government. 
And  while  famine  was  claiming  its  victims  by  the 
thousand,  the  crow-bar  brigade  completed  the  work 
of  desolation.  One  landlord  in  County  Galway,  a 
Mrs.  Gerrard,  cleared  out  a  whole  village,  contain- 
ing two  hundred  and  seventy  souls! 

The  Coercion  Bill,  to  which  we  have  referred  as 
having  been  introduced  simultaneously  with  the 
bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws,  proved  the 
downfall  of  the  Peel  Ministry.  On  the  25th  of  May, 
1846,  the  former  measure  was  defeated  by  a  coalition 
ot  the  Whigs,  Protectionists  and  Repealers,  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  immediately  resigning  office.  The  sincer- 
ity of  the  Waigs  in  voting  against  the  Coercion  Bill 
was  attesled  soon  afterwards  by  that  party  intro- 
ducing and  passing  a  still  more  stringent  measure ! 

Peel,  before  retiring  from  office,  hit  upon  an  expe- 
dient for  breaking  up  f  he  Repeal  Association.  This 
was  the  imprisonment  of  Smith  O'Brien  for  several 
weeks  in  the  cellar  of  the  Hou  ie  of  Commons.  The 
Repeal  M.  P.'s,  believing  that  they  could  accomplish 
more  for  the  cause  by  remaining  in  Ireland  than  by 
any  efforts  they  could  make  in  a  hostile  legislature, 
habitually  absented  themselves  from  Parliament.  It 
was  in  vain  that  they  were  nominated  on  English 
railroad  and  other  committees.  They  replied  that 
they  had  more  important  business  to  attend  to.  But 
on  the  introduction  of  the  Coercion  Act,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  London  to  oppose  that  measure,  and  the 
Government  soon  took  advantage  of  the  situation 
by  placing  their  names  on  railroad  committees. 
O'Connell  and  his  son  obeyed  the  call,  but  O'Brien 


840  JOPULAB  HISTOBY  or  IRELAND. 

refused  and  was  imprisoned  in  the  cellar  for  "con- 
tempt," whereupon  all  England  became  jubilant  over 
the  successful  ruse  of  the  Government.  O'Brien's  im- 
prisonment had  a  most  disastrous  effect  on  the  Repeal 
Association.  The  more  ardent  members  applauded 
O'Brien's  action,  which  was  impliedly  a  censure  on 
the  course  pursued  by  O'ConnelL  At  first  a  soii  of 
patched-up  settlement  was  effected  between  the  jar- 
ring elements ;  but  it  was  short-lived.  The  "Eighty- 
two  Club "  yoted  a  warm  address  to  the  imprisoned 
leader,  thoroughly  indorsing  his  conduct,  and  dis- 
patched several  members  to  present  it  to  him  in  his 
dungeon.  By  the  time  the  Whigs  came  in,  the  divi- 
sions in  the  Repeal  Association  came  to  a  crisis. 
O'Connell,  who  always  had  a  lurking  distrust  of  the 
"  juvenile  members,"  as  he  sneeringly  styled  them, 
now  abandoned  all  agitation  of  the  Repeal  question, 
and  took  measures  to  sever  himself  from  the  advanced 
section,  or  "  Young  Ireland."  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien  thus 
concisely  describes  how  the  split  was  produced  : 

"Negotiations  were  opened  between  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell and  the  Whigs  at  Chesham  Place.  '  Young  Ire- 
land '  protested  in  the  strongest  terms  against  an 
alliance  with  the  Whigs;  Mr.  O'Connell  took  offense 
at  the  language  used  by  Mr.  Meagher  and  others. 
When  I  arrived  in  Dublin,  after  the  resignation  of 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  I  learned  that  he  contemplated  a 
rupture  with  the  writers  of  the  Nation.  Before  I 
went  to  the  County  of  Clare,  I  communicated 
through  Mr.  Ray  a  special  message  to  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell, who  was  then  absent  from  Dublin,  to  the  effect, 
that  though  I  was  most  anxious  to  occupy  a  neutral 


JOPULAB   H1STOBY   OF   IBELAND.  841 

position,  I  could  not  silently  acquiesce  in  any  attempt 
to  expel  the  Nation  or  its  party  from  the  Association. 
Next  came  the  Dungarvan  election,  and  the  new 
'moral  force'  resolutions.  I  felt  it  my  duty  to 
protest  against  both  at  the  Kilrush  dinner.  Upon 
my  return  to  Dublin,  I  found  a  public  letter  from 
Mr.  O'Connell,  formally  denouncing  the  Nation;  and 
no  alternative  was  left  me  but  to  declare  that  if 
that  letter  were  acted  upon  I  coulJ  not  co-operate 
any  longer  with  the  Bepeal  Association.  The  cele- 
brated two-day  debate  then  took  place.  Mr.  J. 
O'Connell  opened  an  attack  upon  the  Nation  and 
upon  its  adherents.  Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Meagher 
defended  themselves  in  language  which  it  seemed  to 
me  did  not  transgress  the  bounds  of  decorum  or  of 
legal  safety.  Mr.  John  O'Connell  interrupted  Mr. 
Meagher  in  his  speech,  and  declared  that  he  could 
not  allow  him  to  proceed  with  the  line  of  argument 
necessary  to  sustain  the  principles  which  had  been 
arraigned.  I  protested  against  this  interruption. 
Mr.  J.  O'Connell  then  gave  us  to  understand  that 
unless  Mr.  Meagher  desisted,  he  (Mr.  J.  O'Connell) 
must  leave  the  hall.  I  could  not  acquiesce  in  this 
attempt  to  stifle  a  fair  discussion,  and  sooner  than 
witness  the  departure  of  Mr.  J.  O'Connell  from  an 
Association  founded  by  his  father,  I  preferred  to 
leave  the  assembly."  The  "  moral  force "  resolu- 
tions alluded  to  above,  condemned,  at  least  by  im- 
plication, as  wrongful  any  and  every  effort,  in  any  age 
or  time,  clime  or  country,  to  redress  political  wrongs 
by  armed  resort !  It  is  no  wonder  that  they  called 
forth  the  righteous  indignation  of  young  Meagher, 


842  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

who,  in  words  of  burning  eloquence,  refused  to  "  ab- 
hor or  stigmatize  the  sword."  O'Brien's  departure 
from  Conciliation  Hall  was  followed  by  that  of  Mit- 
chell, Meagher,  and  the  other  "  Young  Irelanders," 
and  there  was  practically  an  end  to  the  Repeal  Associa- 
tion. Meantime  the  twin  destroyers,  famine  and  fever, 
were  doing  their  terrible  work,  and  the  exterminat- 
ing landlords  were  in  many  cases  enabled  to  regain 
their  lands  by  the  mere  taking,  all  the  inmates  hav- 
ing perished.  During  1846,  not  less  than  three  hun- 
dred thousand  people  perished  by  famine,  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.  But  the  British  Government  being 
sedulous  to  conceal  the  amount  of  the  carnage,  the 
Census  Commissioners,  in  their  Report  for  1851,  put 
the  number  of  "  registered  "  deaths  by  hunger  alone 
—excluding,  of  course,  the  deaths  by  fever,  the 
direct  outcome  of  hunger — at  2,o41.  The  value  of 
those  figures  is  therefore  apparent. 

In  addition  to  the  Coercion  Act,  the  "Whig  Minis- 
try brought  in  and  carried  this  year  the  Labor-rate 
Act.  The  Poor  Law  System  having  utterly  broken 
clown  in  Ireland,  this  Labor-rate  was  intended  as  a 
sort  of  additional  Poor-rate.  The  Labor-rate  was  pay- 
able by  the  same  persons  who  were  liable  to  the  other 
Poor-rates,  and  the  proceeds  were  to  be  applied  to 
the  execution  of  such  public  works  (strictly  useless 
works)  as  the  Government  might  choose  to  sanction, 
all  control  and  superintendence  to  be  vested  in 
Government  officers.  The  Treasury  was  to  advance 
the  money  in  order  to  set  the  people  immediately  to 
work  ;  and  the  advance  was  to  be  repaid  in  ten 
years  by  means  of  the  increased  rate. 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  g43 

Now  the  class  who  suffered  most  from  the  potato- 
blight  were  those  small  farmers,  who,  after  paying 
their  rents,  were  barely  able  to  keep  themselves 
above  starvation.  With  this  new  tax  on  them,  the 
terrible  struggle  which  these  people  had  been  making 
to  keep  themselves  from  becoming  subjects  for  relief 
was  given  up  in  great  part,  and  they  sank  into  the 
class  of  able-bodied  paupers,  and  enrolled  them- 
selves as  Government  navvies,  thus  throwing  them- 
selves for  support  upon  those  who  still  strove  to  live 
by  their  own  labor  on  their  own  land.  In  addition 
to  the  proceeds  of  the  new  Poor-rate,  Parliament 
appropriated  a  further  sum  of  £50,000  to  be  applied 
in  giving  work  in  some  absolutely  pauper  districts, 
where  there  was  no  hope  of  ever  raising  rates  to  re- 
pay it.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  great  majority 
of  the  Irish  people,  who  had  denounced  the  Poor 
Law  System  from  its  very  inception,  strongly  con- 
demned the  new  Act ;  their  objections  were  brushed 
aside  as  being  unworthy  of  serious  consideration. 

According  to  the  wise  dictates  of  their  political 
economists,  the  Government  decided  that  those  re- 
lief works  should  be  useless  in  character,  and  the 
strange  spectacles  were  to  be  witnessed  of  men 
building  bridges  where  there  was  no  water,  and  cut- 
ting roads  where  there  was  no  hill.  The  labor  was 
absolutely  wasted,  the  laborers  utterly  demoralized, 
and  the  way  paved  for  next  year's  famine.  The 
Labor-rate  Act  played  into  the  hands  of  the  exter- 
minating landlords,  who  plied  their  nefarious  game 
more  vigorously  than  ever.  Of  the  many  thousands 
who  had  been  evicted,  those  who  could  scrape  up 


844  POPTTLAB   HIStOBY  OF  IRELAND. 

enough  money  to  pay  their  passage  emigrated  to 
America  The  great  "  exodus1"  to  the  United  States, 
which,  has  been  kept  up  more  or  less  to  the  present 
day,  get  in  with  a  rush.  Men  fled  to  the  seas  as  if 
pursued  by  savage  beasts.  Many  of  these  uerer 
reached  their  destination — they  perished  by  hun- 
dreds in  the  terrible  fever-ships  of  the  period.  And 
while  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  bone  and  muscle 
of  the  country  was  being  driven  across  the  seas, 
nearly  all  of  the  agricultural  laborers  remaining 
were,  by  the  operations  of  the  Labor-rate  Act,  di- 
verted from  their  proper  pursuits.  The  Dublin 
Evening  Mail  of  the  time,  a  pro-British  organ,  speak- 
ing of  the  death  of  agricultural  laborers  in  County 
Limerick,  says  :  "There  is  not  a  laborer  employed 
in  the  county,  except  on  public  works  ;  and  there  is 
every  prospect  of  the  lands  remaining  untilled  and 
unsown  for  next  year."  The  Cork  Constitution, 
another  pro-British  organ,  bears  similar  testimony. 
Thus  the  Government  by  their  own  action  insured 
the  famine  of  '47 — the  most  terrible  year  of  the 
three  famine  years. 

During  the  winter  of  1846-1847  there  was  a  fright- 
ful amount  of  extermination.  In  the  same  winter 
about  four  hundred  thousand  people  perished  of  hun- 
ger and  typhus-fever,  while  at  least  seventeen  mil- 
lions worth  of  the  Irish  harvests  again  went  over  to 
England. 

The  third  and  most  destructive  of  the  Bo-called 
"Relief  measures  was  the  "Out-door  Relief  Act," 
passed  in  February,  1847.  A  new  loan  of  ten  mil- 
lions sterling  was  to  be  raised,  and  to  be  applied 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  845 

from  time  to  time  for  relief  of  the  famine — the  half 
of  the  advances  to  be  repaid  by  additional  Poor 
Law  rates — the  other  half  to  be  a  grant  from  the 
Treasury  to  pay  able-bodied  paupers  for  doing  use- 
less work.  In  this  act  was  a  clause — called  the 
"  Quarter  Acre  Clause  " — providing  that  where  a 
farmer  who  held  land  should  be  forced  to  apply  for 
relief,  he  should  not  get  it  unless  he  first  surrendered 
his  farm  to  his  landlord.  One-quarter  of  an  acre 
he  might  retain  ;  but  all  the  rest  must  be  given  up, 
Henceforth  farms  were  daily  given  up  without  even 
the  formality  of  a  Notice-to-Quit. 

The  Labor-rate  Act  having  been  now  pronounced 
a  failure  in  England,  steps  were  taken  by  the  new 
act  for  dismissing  in  batches  the  laborers  employed 
on  the  public  works.  On  the  6th  of  March,  there 
were  seven  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  heads  of 
families  on  the  public  works,  representing  nearly 
four  millions  of  people.  On  the  10th  of  April,  the 
number  was  reduced  to  600,723.  "Within  the  next 
few  months  batches  of  100,000  or  so  were  in  like 
manner  dismissed.  Most  of  these  had  now  neither 
house  nor  home;  and  their  only  resource  was  the  Out- 
door Relief.  For  this  they  were  ineligible  if  they 
held  but  one  rood  of  land.  Under  the  new  law  it 
was  able-bodied  idlers  only  who  could  be  fed ;  an 
attempt  to  till  even  one  rood  of  ground  was  death. 

It  was  in  this  year  ('47),  that  the  world,  as  if  by  a 
common  impulse,  moved  by  the  terrible  stories  of 
Ireland's  suffering,  sent  forth  their  contributions  to 
that  hapless  land.  Many  charitable  English  peo- 
ple, let  it  be  told  to  their  credit,  acted  nobly  in  thia 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

crisis ;  the  good  Society  of  Friends  were  conspicuous 
in  their  works  of  charity  and  humanity.  The  sym- 
pathy and  substantial  succor  of  la  belle  France 
•were  not  wanting ;  while  even  poor  Turkey  sent 
forward  a  liberal  contribution.  But  above  all  will 
Ireland  ever  remember  the  generous  sympathy  and 
Rid  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who,  in  addi- 
tion to  large  sums  of  money,  sent  two  war-ships, 
the  Macedonian  and  the  Jamestown,  to  Ireland, 
loaded  with  provisions.  Those  contributions,  either 
owing  to  the  criminal  intent  or  bungling  incapacity 
of  ths  British  Government,  did  not  accomplish  any- 
thing like  what  they  would  have  done  had  there 
been  no  Government,  interference.  Before  sending 
the  Jamestown,  the  Americans  had  forwarded  several 
cargoes  of  corn,  intrusting  its  distribution  to  the 
ii<rents  of  the  Government  Relief  Committees,  who 
locked  it  up  in  Government  stores  and  allowed  it  to 
l>o  very  gradually  distributed  among  the  famishing 
people.  They  considered  that  its  prompt  applica- 
tion to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  sent  would 
derange  the  Liverpool  market.  The  Americans, 
therefore,  seeing  that  by  this  mode  of  distribution 
their  efforts  had  scarcely  an  appreciable  effect 
towards  diminishing  Irish  suffering,  sent  the  James- 
town into  Cork  Harbor,  and  intrusted  the  disposal 
of  its  cargo  to  a  committee  of  Cork  citizens.  Even 
here,  the  good  intentions  of  the  Americans  were  to  a 
largo  extent  frustrated.  As  the  cargo  of  the  James- 
town eamo  into  consumption,  prices  became  a  shade 
lower,  and  speculators  made  a  rich  harvest  in  ship- 
ping to  Liverpool,  and  the  heartless  spectacle  was 


K>PULAK   HISTORY   Of   IRELAKD.  847 

presented  in  many  an  Irish  port  of  ships  leaving  for 
England  laden  with  grain  and  cattle. 

In  1847  was  passed  that  infamous  piece  of  legisla- 
tion known  as  the  "  Vagrancy  Act."  As  thousands 
of  the  unfortunate  Irish  were  fleeing  to  England,  in 
the  hope  of  earning  a  livelihood,  there  the  Govern- 
ment took  alarm  about  typhus  fever.  Orders  in 
council  were  suddenly  issued,  subjecting  all  vessels 
having  deck-passengers  to  troublesome  examinations 
and  quarantine,  and  in  less  than  a  week  afterwards 
four  of  the  steamship  companies  between  England 
and  Ireland,  on  request  of  Ministers,  raised  the  pas- 
sage rate  for  deck-passengera.  In  this  same  year, 
vast  numbers  of  destitute  Irish  people  in  England, 
whose  labors  for  a  large,  perhaps  the  better,  portion 
of  their  lives  Lad  gone  to  enrich  that  country,  were 
sent  back  by  parish  and  town  authorities,  and  liter- 
ally dumped  on  the  Irish  coasts. 

The  people  were  now  in  a  terrible  plight.  They  had 
no  money  to  emigrate,  and  in  their  own  country  they 
had  neither  food  nor  shelter.  The  poor-houses  were 
crammed  ;  each  of  them  was  an  hospital  for  typhus 
fever,  and  it  was  anything  but  an  uncommon  sight 
to  see  three  or  four  fever  patients  in  one  bed,  some 
dead  and  others  not  yet  dead.  Several  unions, 
overwhelmed  with  rates,  refused  to  provide  coffins 
for  the  dead  paupers,  and  in  heaps  they  were  thrown 
coffinless  into  holes.  Other  unions,  with  some  out- 
ward show  of  decency,  procured  a  coffin  which  had 
its  bottom  hinged  at  one  side,  and  closed  with  a 
latch  on  the  other,  and  this  did  duty  in  hundreds  of 
cases  of  interment.  The  horrors  of  those  famine 


848  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

years  no  pen  could  exaggerate.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  they  excited  the  sympathy  of  a  civilized  world. 
But  while  Ireland  received  friendly  aid  and  sympa- 
thy from  almost  every  civilized  country,  it  must  be 
repeated  emphatically  that  she  never  once  during 
those  terrible  times  solicited  alms :  that  was  done 
for  her  by  her  humane  rulers,  who  deprived  her  of 
her  substance  with  one  hand,  and  held  out  the  other 
to  the  world's  charity  for  her.  All  Ireland  wanted, 
was  the  use  of  her  own,  and  this  she  could  only  have 
by  Eepeal  of  the  Union.  This  England  would  not  grant, 
but  insisted  instead  that  she  should  remain  a  nation  of 
beggars.  Thus,  on  the  17th  of  October,  1847,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  issued  a  form  of  thanks- 
giving for  an  "  abundant  harvest,"  to  be  read  in  all 
the  churches,  and  on  the  same  day  a  Royal  Letter 
was  issued,  asking  alms  in  those  same  churches  for 
the  starving  Irish. 

In  February,  1847,  the  great  Tribune,  weighed 
down  by  grief  over  the  horrors  of  the  famine  and 
the  destruction  of  his  fond  hopes  for  Eepeal  of  the 
Union,  quitted  Ireland  for  Home.  He  desired  to  see 
the  Pope,  and  then  resign  his  spirit  into  the  hands  ol 
its  Creator  in  the  Eternal  City.  In  the  inscrutable 
wisdom  of  Providence,  these  wishes  were  not  des 
tined  to  be  realized ;  for  on  the  16th  of  May  he 
died  at  Genoa,  on  the  way.  His  death  created  the 
most  profound  grief  amongst  Irishmen  the  world 
over,  and  even  his  enemies  heard  with  emotion  the 
announcement  of  the  sad  event. 

The  horrid  spectacle  of  his  people  perishing  be- 
fore hia  eyee,  and  the  utter  collapse  of  his  schemei 


POPULAR   BISTORT   OF  IRELAND.  £1<5 

for  Repeal  assuredly  hastened  his  death.  0*Conne11 
was  always  a  sincere  Catholic,  and  his  death  was  a 
truly  edifying  one.  He  bequeathed  his  body  to  Ire- 
land and  his  heart  to  Eome,  "  not,"  as  he  said,  "that 
he  loved  Ireland  less,  but  that  he  loved  Eome  more." 
The  funeral  procession  in  Dublin  was  of  monster 
proportions.  Smith  O'Brien  and  his  confederates 
wished  to  attend  the  obsequies,  and  the  fact  that 
John  O'Connell  positively  forbade  their  taking  part 
will  show  how  great  was  the  breach  between  O'Con- 
nell's  party  and  the  Young  Irelanders. 

The  Irish  harvest  of  1847  was  again  an  abundant 
one,  and  if  it  could  only  be  kept  in  the  country 
there  would  have  been  no  danger  of  famine.  The 
terrible  consequences  of  the  unrestricted  shipment 
of  grain  and  cattle  to  England  in  the  preceding 
years  of  the  famine  had  by  this  time  thoroughly 
exasperated  the  people.  Indeed,  John  Mitchell  and 
his  compatriots  boldly  advocated  the  forcible  stop- 
page of  all  convoys  of  Irish  grain  or  cattle  on  their 
way  to  the  seacoast  for  shipment.  Their  teachings 
aroused  their  countrymen,  and  in  the  County  Clare 
mobs  were  beginning  to  stop  the  transport  of  pro- 
Tisions.  Lord  Clarendon  was  sent  over  in  this  year 
(1847),  as  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  He  was  full 
of  conciliation  and  promises  to  stamp  out  the  fam- 
ine. To  combat  the  teachings  of  the  Mitchell  School 
and  to  turn  the  thoughts  and  hopes  of  the  people 
towards  the  Government,  he  recommended  a  tour 
of  agricultural  "  lectures,"  the  expense  to  be  pro- 
vided by  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  aided  by 
public  grants.  The  lecturers  were  to  go  on  every 


850  POPUIAR   HTSTOttT  OF 

estate,  call  the  tenants  together,  and  enlighten  them 
on  the  principles  of  scientific  agriculture.  This  cruel 
mockery  of  delivering  highly  scientific  agricultural 
lectures  to  a  people  who  expected  to  be  turned  out 
of  their  holdings  the  following  spring  was  bad 
enough,  but  baser  and  more  treacherous  was  Lord 
Clarendon's  attempt  to  subsidize  the  Dublin  press.  It 
is  to  the  credit  of  that  press,  however,  that  only  one 
paper,  a  disreputable  sheet  called  the  World,  edited 
by  a  blackmailer  named  Birch,  was  willing  to  sell 
itself  to  the  enemy.  This  Birch,  who  lived  by  hush- 
money,  and  who  was  several  times  tried  and  con- 
victed as  A  blackmailer,  the  Government  were  not 
above  taking  into  their  service,  and  paying  for  mak- 
ing weekly  attacks  of  the  most  revolting  character 
on  Mitchell,  O'Brien  and  Meagher,  and  the  other 
leaders.  All  those  things  afterwards  came  to  light, 
and  much  racy  evidence  was  eh' cited  in  the  case 
of  Birch  vs.  Sir  T.  Kedington,  hi  which  the  worthy 
Government  tool  brings  suit  for  "further  sums" 
due  him  for  "  work  and  labor  "  performed. 

Another  measure  of  Lord  Clarendon,  ingenuously 
devised  to  cause  division  amongst  the  Irish  people, 
was  his  great  liberality  towards  Catholic  lawyers  in 
the  distribution  of  patronge.  Mr.  Monahan,  a 
Catholic  barrister,  for  instance,  was  made  Attorney- 
General  for  Ireland,  and  subsequently  raised  to  the 
bench.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Monahan  and 
others  like  him  became  most  pliant  and  useful  tools 
of  the  Government. 

Meantime  Mitchell  and  the  writers  in  the  Nation 
iiad  been  endeavoring  to  turn  the  miuds  of  the  peo- 


POPULAR  BISTORT  OF  IRELAND.  851 

pie  to  the  only  true  remedy  for  their  evils — that  is, 
a  combined  effort  to  prevent  export  of  provisions, 
and  to  resist  process  of  ejectment.  Indeed,  they 
would  go  further,  and  destroy  root  and  branch  the 
accursed  system  of  landlordism  in  which  was  the  real 
cause  of  Ireland's  many  ills.  They  knew  that  this 
could  only  be  accomplished  by  a  successful  armed 
revolution,  but  they  boldly  declared  at  the  same 
time  that  it  were  better  to  die  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  fighting  for  the  right  to  live,  than  die  of  starv- 
ation in  a  ditch.  The  Government  took  alarm  at 
these  bold  doctrines,  and  another  stringent  Coer- 
cion Act  was  the  result. 

Unhappy  Ireland  1  This  year  was  truly  for  her  a 
"  Black  Forty-seven."  Assailed  at  once  by  famine 
and  fever,  the  crow-bar  brigades,  emigration  and 
coercion,  she  was  a  truly  pitiable  object.  Captain 
Larcom,  a  Government  Commissioner,  be  it  remem- 
bered, in  1848,  furnished  a  Keport,  from  which  it 
appears  that  in  1847  there  were  in  all  Ireland  about 
seventy  thousand  heads  of  families  evicted  from 
their  holdings.  He  says  :  "  In  the  number  of  farms 
of  from  one  to  five  acres,  the  decrease  has  been 
24,147  ;  from  five  to  fifteen  acres,  27,379  ;  from  fif- 
teen to  thirty  acres,  4,274 ;  whilst  of  farms  above 
thirty  acres,  the  increase  has  been  3,670."  When 
the  famine  was  over,  and  its  results  came  to  be  esti- 
mated, it  was  found  that  Ireland  had  lost  two  mil- 
lions and  a  half  of  her  people.  The  census  of  Ire- 
land in  1841  gave  a  population  of  8,175,125.  At  the 
usual  rate  of  increase  there  must  have  been  in  1846, 
when  the  famine  commenced,  at  least  eight  and  a 


852  POFULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

half  millions.  At  the  same  rate  of  increase  there 
ought  to  have  been  in  1851  (famine  was  in  the  land 
till  this  latter  year,  though  in  a  mitigated  form  after 
1848),  9,018,799.  But  the  census  showed  that  in 
1851  there  were  only  6,552,385 — that  is,  a  deficit  of 
two  millions  and  a  hall  Of  this  number,  something 
like  a  million  and  a  half  died  of  hunger  directly,  or 
of  fever  superinduced  by  hunger. 


OHAPTEB  IV. 

YOUNG  IRELAND  AND  THE  "  FORTY-EIGHT  "  MOVEMENT. 
—THE  ENCUMBERED  ESTATES  ACT. — THE  TENANT 
LEAGUE. — THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  TITHES  BILL. 

The  split  in  the  Repeal  ranks,  and  the  formation 
of  the  Young  Ireland  party  on  a  distinct  basis,  have 
been  already  briefly  noticed,  but  it  seems  necessary 
that  a  more  extended  account  should  be  given  of 
the  status,  aims  and  policy  of  an  organization  which 
has  been  such  a  powerful  factor  in  shaping  the 
course  of  Irish  political  life  in  our  days.  It  is  a  big 
mistake  and  a  great  injustice  to  regard  the  Young 
Irelanders  merely  as  a  set  of  wild  enthusiasts,  only 
capable  of  producing  a  ridiculous  farce  of  an  insur- 
rection, such  as  they  did  at  Ballingary  in  1848. 
They  worked  loyally  with  O'Oonnell  until  circum- 
stances, which  were  none  of  their  creation,  rendered 
their  secession  inevitable,  and  in  their  subsequent 
history,  if  we  except  the  ill-advised  insurrectionary 
attempt  at  Ballingary,  there  was  nothing  which 
Irishmen  need  have  cause  to  excuse. 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  853 

To  them  belongs  the  credit  of  essaying,  for  the 
first  time  in  our  generation,  the  task  of  purifying 
the  Irish  political  atmosphere.  The  parliamentary- 
representation  of  that  country  was  long  known  to 
be  grossly  corrupt.  Indeed,  many  a  parliamentary 
seat  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  exclusive  prop- 
erty of  some  autocrat  who  had  nothing  in  common 
with  his  constituents.  The  Young  Icelanders  boldly 
assailed  this  vicious  system,  and  their  resistance, 
though  not  followed  in  many  cases  by  direct  visible 
results,  paved  the  way  for  that  spirit  of  political 
independence  which  now  happily  prevails  in  Ireland. 

The  motto  of  the  Young  Irelanders,  and  the  key- 
note of  their  policy,  was,  "  Educate,  that  you  may  be 
free."  They  accordingly  at  an  early  period  of  their 
career  determined  to  establish  a  weekly  newspaper, 
which  should  tend  "  to  create  and  foster  public 
opinion  in  Ireland,  and  make  it  racy  of  the  soil." 
The  originators  of  this  ambitious  scheme  were 
Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  Thomas  Osborne  Davis  and 
John  Blake  Dillon.  The  new  paper  was  christened 
the  Nation,  the  first  number  appearing  on  the  15th 
of  October,  1842.  At  one  bound  the  Nation  sprang 
into  popularity.  The  ability  with  which  it  was  con- 
ducted surprised  friends  and  foes  alike.  It  was  not 
so  much  a  gleaner  of  news  as  a  popular  educator. 
A.S  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan  so  beautifully  expresses  in  his 
**  Young  Ireland,"  "  fervid  prose  and  thrilling  verse, 
literary  essay  and  historical  ballad,  were  all  pressed 
into  the  service  of  Irish  nationality.  The  effect  was 
beyond  all  anticipation.  The  country  seemed  to 
awaken  to  a  new  life  ;  '  a  soul  had  come  into  Erin.' M 


854  POPTTAB    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

Another  laudable  undertaking  of  the  Yoang  Ire- 
landers  was  the  bringing  of  good,  healthy  literature 
within  reach  of  the  masses  This  they  did  in  a 
series  of  monthly  publications,  known  as  "  Duffy's 
Library  of  Ireland."  Those  publications  were  a 
powerful  factor  in  the  education  of  the  masses. 

But  the  greatest  service,  perhaps,  the  Young  Ire- 
lander  srendered  their  country,  was  their  noble,  and 
in  a  large  degree  successful,  efforts  to  destroy  reli- 
gious hatred  in  Ireland,  and  to  bring  Protestants 
and  Catholics  to  work  together  for  their  common 
country.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  their  labors 
in  that  direction  were  most  beneficent  for  Ireland, 
aiid  that  the  fraternal  spirit  which  now,  more  than 
at  any  previous  period  of  Ireland's  history,  is  abroad, 
may  in  a  large  degree  be  credited  to  their  patriotic 
efforts. 

Of  the  many  distinguished  men  comprised  in  the 
Young  Ireland  party,  in  addition  to  those  already 
named,  we  might  mention  the  name  of  Thomas 
D'Arcy  McGee,  who  as  a  minister  of  the  Crown  in 
Canada  won  high  distinction,  and  whose  brilliant 
career  was  prematurely  closed  by  an  assassin's  bul- 
let at  Ottawa,  in  1868.  The  gifted  Thomas  Francis 
Meagher  won  high  distinction  as  a  soldier  and  ora- 
tor in  America,  and,  after  the  war,  was  made  Gov- 
ernor of  Montana  Territory,  but  unfortunately  was 
accidentally  drowned  in  the  Missouri,  as  he  was  pro- 
ceeding to  assume  office.  "Honest  John  Martin" 
and  J.  P.  lionayne,  both  dead,  have  done  good  work 
for  Ireland  as  parliamentary  representatives.  Hon. 
Richard  O'Gomian  is  now  one  of  the  most  honored 


POPOLAB  HISTORY  OF   IRELAND.  855 

citizens  of  New  York,  and  has  been  many  times 
elected  to  some  of  the  highest  positions  in  the  gift 
of  the  people.  Mitchell  went  home  to  Ireland  to 
die  in  1875,  and  before  his  death  was  elected  as 
Tipperary's  parliamentary  representative.  R.  D.  Wil- 
liams, whose  exquisite  lays  and  humorous  poetical 
contributions  are  prized  by  all  Irishmen,  sleeps  in  a 
Louisiana  grave.  Dr.  Kevin  Izod  O'Doherty,  John 
O'Hogan,  Samuel  Ferguson,  Michael  Doheny,  Dennis 
Florence  McCarthy,  Rev.  Charles  Meehan,  Denny 
Laue,  James  Clarence  Mangan,  John  Kells  Ingram — 
the  author  of  "  Who  fears  to  speak  of  Ninety-eight?" 
— and  though  last,  not  least,  the  three  poetesses  of 
the  Nation,  "Speranza,"  or  Lady  Wilde;  "Eva," 
or  Eva  May  Kelly,  now  Mrs.  Kevin  Izod  O'Doherty ; 
and  "May,"  or  Miss  Ellen  Downing — those  are 
the  most  prominent  of  that  brilliant  band  that  made 
up  the  Young  Ireland  party. 

William  Smith  O'Brien  was  the  recognized  leader 
of  the  Young  Ireland  party.  He  was  a  man  of  high 
social  position,  connected  with  some  of  the  most 
aristocratic  families  in  Ireland,  and  an  extensive 
land-owner.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  King 
Brian  Boru,  the  hero  of  Clontarf,  and  was  justly 
proud  of  his  ancient  and  noble  lineage.  His  public 
and  private  character  was  above  reproach ;  he  was 
the  very  impersonation  of  truth  and  honor. 

The  opening  of  1848  found  the  Nation  and  the 
Young  Ireland  party  bolder  and  more  defiant  than 
ever  in  their  language.  Witnessing  the  cruel  work 
of  the  famine,  and  the  operation  of  an  Algerian  Code, 
which  stifled  almost  the  last  vestige  of  human 


85G  POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

liberty  in  Ireland,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  idea  of 
physical  resistance  to  an  intolerable  tyranny  began 
to  take  a  firm  hold  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
Young  Irelanders.  It  is  true  the  physical  force 
doctrine  was  not  yet  openly  or  even  privately  advo- 
cated, except  perhaps  by  a  very  few  of  the  more 
ardent  spirits,  but  it  was  evident  to  any  observant 
person  that  things  were  drifting  in  that  direction. 
For  a  considerable  time  after  their  withdrawal  from 
the  O'Connell  party,  the  Young  Irelanders  worked 
earnestly  and  loyally  in  the  Kepeal  interest,  and  had 
no  idea  of  employing  other  than  moral  means 
towards  the  attainment  of  the  end  which  both  par- 
ties had  then  in  view.  The  Young  Ireland  organi- 
zation was  known  as  the  "  Irish  Confederation,"  and 
recognized  William  Smith  O'Brien  as  its  leader  ; 
while  the  "  Old  "  or  original  Repeal  Association  was 
conducted  by  John  O'Connell.  Now,  long  before 
the  great  Tribune's  death,  the  original  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation had  become  much  emasculated,  and  under 
the  feeble  leadership  of  O'ConnelTs  son,  this  condi- 
tion of  things  became  aggravated  ;  and  the  result  was 
that  there  was  much  dissatisfaction  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Young  Irelanders,  many  of  whom  abandoned  all 
hope  of  wringing  any  concessions  from  England  by 
constitutional  means.  Indeed,  towards  the  close  of 
1847,  it  became  evident  that  in  the  Irish  Confedera- 
tion itself  there  were  two  parties — one,  tinder  the 
leadership  of  John  Mitchell,  favoring  armed  resist- 
ance ;  the  other  counseling  a  more  prudent  course. 
In  an  article  in  the  Nation,  Mitchell  declared  that 
the  time  had  come  for  calling  upon  the  Irish  people 


POPTOAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  857 

1 

to  face  an  armed  struggle.  This  line  of  action  was 
repudiated  by  Mitchell's  colleagues  on  the  Nation, 
Duffy  and  McGee,  and  the  consequence  was  that 
Mitchell  retired  from  the  paper,  and  carried  the 
controversy  into  the  council-room  of  the  Confedera- 
tion. Mitchell's  policy  was  strongly  condemned  by 
Smith  O'Brien,  Gavan  Duffy,  John  B.  Dillon,  T.  F. 
Meagher,  Richard  O'Gorman,  D'Arcy  McGee,  and 
others,  and  after  two  days'  debate,  on  the  5th  of 
February,  1848,  when  the  question  was  submitted 
to  a  vote,  was  overwhelmingly  rejected.  Mitchell 
and  his  party  thereupon  withdrew  from  the  Confed- 
eration. 

Mitchell's  indomitable  spirit,  however,  was  not  so 
easily  to  be  subjugated.  He  started  a  paper  called 
the  United  Irishman,  in  which  he  boldly  advocated 
his  policy  of  insurrection.  Though  his  course  at  the 
time  was  regarded  by  all  except  his  immediate  fol- 
lowers as  foolhardy,  within  a  few  days  an  event  oc- 
curred which  was  destined  to  make  him  master  of 
the  situation,  so  far  as  the  Confederates  were  con- 
cerned. This  was  the  French  Eevolution  of  '48. 
The  24th  of  February  saw  King  Louis  Philippe  a 
fugitive,  and  the  French  Republic  proclaimed.  The 
astounding  news  set  Ireland  ablaze.  It  filled  the 
hearts  of  the  people  with  hope,  and  the  vision  of  Ire- 
land as  a  nation  free  and  disinthralled  fired  the 
popular  mind.  Popular  upheavals  were  the  order 
of  the  day  all  over  the  Continent.  From  Paris,  from 
Berlin,  from  Vienna,  came  the  same  thrilling  news 
— the  people  were  rising  in  their  might  against 
oppression. 


858  ropuLAB  HISTORY  or  IRELAND. 


The  United  Irishman  was  now  sought  for  by  aU, 
and  its  contents  devoured  with  avidity.  It  became 
Btill  bolder  in  its  tone,  and  published  instructions 
on  barricading  and  street  warfare.  Even  the  Con- 
federate leaders,  who  had  only  a  short  time  before 
opposed  Mitchell's  policy,  were  seized  with  the  pop- 
ular enthusiasm.  They,  too,  believed  that  Ireland's 
opportunity  had  come.  Confederate  "clubs"  were 
formed  all  over  the  country,  in  which  instruction  in 
military  tactics  occupied  the  first  attention.  Even 
binith  O'Brien,  though  conservative  in  his  views,  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Confederation,  on  the  16th  of 
March,  introduced  a  resolution  that  an  address  of 
congratulation  be  presented  to  the  French  people. 
The  citizens  of  Dublin,  at  a  meeting  held  subse- 
quently, adopted  a  similar  resolution. 

The  Government  was  not  an  unattentive  spectator 
of  all  these  things.  On  the  21st  of  March,  O'Brien, 
Meagher  and  Mitchell  were  arrested,  the  first  two 
charged  with  seditious  speeches;  Mitchell,  with  sedi- 
tious writings  —  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 
Executive  intended  to  strike  hard.  Before  the  trials, 
O'Brien  and  Meagher,  in  company  with  an  intelli- 
gent and  patriotic  tradesman  named  Hollywood,  pro- 
ceeded to  France,  to  present  M.  de  Lamartine,  Pres- 
ident of  the  Provisional  Government,  with  the  ad- 
dresses of  congratulation  from  the  Irish  Confedera- 
tion and  the  citizens  of  Dublin.  On  their  return, 
O'Brien  found  the  British  House  of  Commons  en- 
gaged in  discussing  a  new  bill  "  for  the  further  se- 
curity of  Her  Majesty's  Crown."  The  law  which 
they  were  now  to  enact  for  Ireland  was  the  "  Trea- 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  859 

son-felony  Law,"  under  the  provisions  of  which  the 
writing  and  printing,  or  open  and  advised  speaking, 
of  incitements  to  insurrection  in  Ireland  should  be 
deemed  a  felony,  punishable  by  transportation. 
When  O'Brien,  from  his  place  in  Parliament,  con- 
demned this  bill,  the  scene  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  scandalously  and  outrageously  indecent. 
"Honorable  "  members  had  recourse  to  howls,  cat- 
calls and  other  unseemly  demonstrations  worthy  of 
an  assembly  of  Yahoos.  The  measure  was  of  course 
passed_^by  overwhelming  majorities,  and  a  new 
weapon  for  the  oppression  of  Ireland  was  thus 
forged. 

The  deputies,  on  their  return  to  Dublin,  were  re- 
ceived with  enthusiasm,  and  Meagher,  at  a  monster 
meeting,  presented  the  citizens  of  Dublin  with  a 
magnificent  Irish  Tricolor  of  green,  white  and  orange, 
surmounted  by  a  pikehead.  The  Government  prose- 
cutions of  the  Confederate  leaders  now  came  on, 
the  cases  of  O'Brien  and  Meagher  being  first  tried. 
To  the  great  joy  of  the  people,  the  juries  disagreed, 
and  the  prosecutions  fell  through.  Mitchell,  how- 
ever, was  not  allowed  to  escape  so  easily.  Before 
his  trial  took  place,  on  the  22d  of  May,  the  "  Trea- 
son-felony Act "  was  in  operation,  and  his  conviction 
was  a  foregone  conclusion ;  on  the  26th  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  fourteen  years'  transportation  beyond 
the  seas!  That  sentence  gave  a  deathblow  to  the 
insurrectionary  movement  of  1848,  of  which  Mit- 
chell was  the  life  and  soul.  That  movement  was 
utterly  condemned  and  discountenanced  by  all  the 
conservative  elements  of  the  population,  including 


800  POPULAR  HISTORY  OP  TRELAIOX 

the  Catholic  clergy  and  the  O'Connell  Repealers.  To 
the  opposition  of  the  clergy  in  particular  was  due 
the  fact  that  the  movement  was  confined  to  narrow 
limits,  and  that  anything  like  a  general  rising  was 
averted. 

The  forcible  removal  of  Mitchell  from  their  midst 
inflamed  -the  Confederates,  who  now  redoubled  their 
exertions  in  preparing  for  the  inevitable.  The 
Council  of  the  Confederation  was  reconstructed, 
and  the  clubs  all  over  the  country  exhorted  to  pro- 
cure arms,  to  be  ready  for  the  rising,  which  it  was 
now  understood  should  take  place  in  the  Autumn  of 
1848.  The  Irish  Tribune,  edited  by  Kevin  Izod 
O'Doherty  and  R.  D.  Williams,  was  started  to  take 
the  place  of  the  United  Irishman.  It  was  a  bold  and 
ably  conducted  paper,  one  of  its  contributors  being 
John  Savage.  Still  another  organ — the  Irish  Felon, 
owned  and  edited  by  John  Martin — made  its  appear- 
ance two  weeks  afterwards,  its  first  issue  being  on 
the  24th  of  June.  Those  papers,  in  fiery  language, 
continued  for  successive  weeks  to  openly  and  boldly 
in-each  the  gospel  of  insurrection.  This  was  allowed 
to  proceed  for  a  few  weeks,  when  suddenly  the  Gov- 
ernment interfered,  the  police  were  ordered  to  stop 
the  sale  of  the  "  seditious"  papers  by  venders  in  the 
streets,  and  warrants  were  issued  for  the  arrest  of 
the  editors,  Martin,  Duffy,  O'Doherty  and  Williams. 
Searches  for  arms  were  instituted  all  over  the  coun- 
try, and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  Government 
was  bent  on  forcing  an  insuiTection  before  the  har- 
vest. Parliament  passed  a  bill  for  the  Suspension 
of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  Ireland,  and  warrants 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OP  IRELAND.  861 

were  issued  for  the  arrest  of  O'Brien,  Meagher,  and 
the  other  Confederate  leaders.  O'Brien,  when  he 
heard  of  this,  was  stopping  at  the  house  of  a  friend 
in  Ballinkule,  County  Wexford.  He  was  joined  by 
Dillon  and  Meagher,  and  the  three  betook  them- 
selves to  the  hills  of  Tipperary,  where  they  resolved 
to  raise  a  force  and  march  on  Kilkenny,  the  inten- 
tion being  to  make  this  city  the  headquarters,  for  the 
time  being,  of  .a  provisional  government. 

But  it  was  a  forlorn  hope  that  Smith  O'Brien  waa 
leading.  Famine  stih1  held  its  deadly  grasp  upon 
the  land,  and  in  thousands  the  starved  and  dispirited 
people  were  flung  out  from  their  holdings,  to  seek 
refuge  in  the  poorhouse  or  the  grave.  Add  to  this 
the  fact  that  the  clergy — certainly  from  the  most 
conscientious  motives — were  strenuous  in  dissuading 
the  people  from  entering  into  so  hopeless  a  struggle, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  movement  collapsed 
almost  at  its  inauguration.  There  is  no  question, 
however,  that  but  for  this  clerical  opposition  O'Brien 
would  soon  have  found  himself  at  the  head  of  thou- 
sands, instead  of  the  straggling  band  of  peasants 
which  he  led  in  the  miserable  attempt  at  Ballingary. 
At  Farrenrary  House — since  known  in  the  surround- 
ing district,  as  if  in  bitter  irony,  as  the  "  War  House  " 
— a  body  of  forty-five  armed  policemen,  under  the 
command  of  a  Captain  Trant,  barricaded  themselves. 
There  was  but  one  prompt  and  effectual  way  of 
reducing  the  place,  and  that  was  by  firing  it.  Some 
bay  and  straw  was  brought  up,  and  as,  in  the  midst 
of  a  deadly  fusillade  from  the  police,  the  house  was 
about  to  be  set  on  fire,  O'Brien  interfered  and  for- 


b62  POPULAR   HISTORY  Of  IRELAND. 

bade  the  attempt  The  house  was  the  residence  of 
a  widow  named  McCormack,  whose  five  children 
were  at  the  moment  within,  and  the  Confederate 
leader  could  not  refuse  the  appeal  of  the  mother  to 
spare  her  Kttle  ones.  O'Brien's  followers  were  disgust- 
ed at  what  they  deemed  his  faintheartedness,  and  the 
siege  was  abandoned.  Of  the  insurgents,  two  were 
killed  and  a  few  were  wounded.  The  casualties  on  the 
side  of  the  constabulary  were  not  known  ;  bat  it  was 
believed  that  one  or  two  were  killed  and  several 
wounded.  Thus  ended  the  "  insurrection"  of  **  Forty- 
eight."  Thus  vanished  the  brilliant  hopes  of  the 
Confederates. 

It  must  be  said  that  O'Brien  was  by  nature  en- 
tirely unsuited  to  play  the  part  of  a  military  leader. 
His  refined  and  sensitive  nature  would  shrink  from 
the  performance  of  many  things  which,  from  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view,  might,  perhaps,  be  regarded  as  of 
prime  necessity.  After  this  abortive  rising,  O'Brien 
scarcely  made  any  attempt  to  avoid  arrest,  and  was 
soon  in  the  hands  of  the  authorities.  Indeed,  thanks 
to  the  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  the  Gov- 
ernment soon  had  nearly  all  the  Confederate  leaders 
in  prison.  O'Gorman,  Dillon  and  Doheny,  however, 
managed  to  escape  to  America.  The  trials  followed 
in  due  course.  The  editors  were  tried  under  the 
Treason-felony  Act,  and  O'Brien  and  his  immediate 
followers  under  the  Common  Law  for  "  high  treason," 
having  appeared  in  arms  against  the  Government. 
The  trial  of  the  insurgents,  O'Brien,  Meagher,  Mao- 
Manus  and  O'Donohne,  took  place  at  Clonmel,  under 
a  Special  Commission.  The  juries  were,  packed. 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OP  IRELAm  863 

and,  of  course,  the  prisoners  were  convicted.  They 
were  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered. 

In  October  and  November,  1848,  Duffy,  of  the 
Nation,  Williams  and  O'Doherty,  of  the  Tribune,  and 
Martin,  of  the  Felon,  were  tried  in  Green  Street, 
Dublin.  O'Doherty  and  Martin  were  convicted, 
Williams  was  acquitted,  while  the  jury  disagreed  in 
the  case  of  Duffy.  The  latter,  however,  was  retained 
in  prison,  and  not  even  after  a  second  jury  had 
failed  to  convict  him  would  the  Government  let  him 
go.  When,  however,  the  trouble  was  all  over,  the 
prosecution  against  him  was  abandoned.  It  is  a 
most  suggestive  fact  that  this  man  afterwards  became 
Prime  Minister  of  Victoria.  The  sentences  of  those 
who  were  condemned  to  death  were,  by  a  special 
Act  of  Parliament,  commuted  to  transportation  for 
life.  They  were  accordingly  transported  to  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  O'Doherty  and  Martin,  who  had 
been  each  sentenced  to  ten  years'  transportation, 
accompanying  them. 

The  situation  of  Ireland  was  now  gloomy  in  the 
extreme  ;  a  black  pall  of  despair  seemed  to  over- 
shadow the  land.  "  Now  for  the  first  time  these  six 
hundred  years,"  triumphantly  shouted  the  London 
Times,  "  England  has  Ireland  at  her  mercy,  and  can 
deal  with  her  as  she  pleases."  The  ravages  of  fam- 
ine during  1848  were  hardly  less  horrible  than  in 
the  preceding  year.  "Upwards  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  ass-hides,"  so  said  an  item  in  the  commer- 
cial reports  of  a  Dublin  paper,  "  have  been  delivered 
in  Dublin  from  the  County  Mayo,  for  exportation  to 
Liverpool.  The  carcasses,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of 


804  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.     • 

provisions,  had  been  used  as  food."  Emigration 
during  1848,  as  in  1847,  went  on  on  a  huge  scale. 
The  7\mes  said  the  Celts  were  "  going  with  a  ven- 
geance." This  "  Irish  exodus  "  is  almost  without  a 
parallel  in  history.  It  is  true  that  emigrations 
from  Germany  have  gone  on  on  a  large  scale,  but 
they  have  not  been  attended  by  the  frightful  scenei 
of  suffering  and  death  which  characterized  the 
Irish  exodus.  The  sentimental  ties,  too,  that  bind 
an  Irishman  to  his  little  holding  are  unknown  to  the 
German,  who  leaves  his  country  in  a  purely  practi- 
cal spirit,  with  the  hope  of  bettering  his  condition. 
But  aside  from  mere  sentiment,  the  terrible  horrors 
attendant  on  the  Irish  exodus  of  those  times  can 
hardly  be  exaggerated.  The  emigrants,  flying  from 
fever-stricken  hovels,  carried  the  plague  with  them 
on  board,  and  the  vessels  were  transformed  into 
huge  floating  charnel-houses.  A  large  proportion 
of  them  never  reached  their  destination.  They  died 
in  thousands  on  the  voyage,  and  the  ocean-bed  was 
strewn  with  their  corpses.  An  idea  may  be  had  of 
the  frightful  havoc  thus  wrought,  from  some  figures 
given  by  Mr.  Labouchere,  in  a  speech  delivered  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  llth  of  February, 
1848.  "  Out  of  106,000  emigrants,"  says  Mr.  Labou- 
chere, "  who  during  the  past  twelve  months  crossed 
the  Atlantic  for  Canada  and  New  Brunswick,  6,100 
perished  on  the  voyage;  4,100,  on  their  arrival;  5,200, 
in  the  hospitals;  and  1,900,  in  the  towns  to  which  they 
repaired.  The  entire  mortality  was  no  less  than  17 
per  cent,  of  the  total  number  emigrating  to  those 
places  ;  the  number  of  deaths  being  17,300."  And 


POPULAB   HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  865 

these  are  the  statistics  for  only  one  of  several  such 
years  of  horror  and  misery  1 

Meanwhile  the  Government  kept  up  a  show  of 
coercion  for  the  starving  Irish  people.  "When  Par- 
liament met  late  in  January,  1849,  the  Queen's 
Speech  called  attention  with  regret  to  the  fact  that 
there  had  been  another  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in 
1848.  Ireland,  too,  was  to  continue  to  receive  the 
benefit,  "  for  a  limited  period,"  of  the  Coercion  Act 
Thus  in  1849  as  in  1882  coercion  and  conciliation 
were  to  go  hand  in  hand.  Feeble  and  ineffectual 
were  the  measures  taken  by  England  to  avert  the 
famine  in  the  preceding  years,  and  her  remedies 
this  year  must  be  characterized  in  the  same  terms. 
If,  when  the  first  season  of  famine  appeared,  she  had ; 
appropriated  to  stay  its  course  as  much  as  she  ex-  ( 
pended  to  purchase  the  freedom  of  the  slaves  in  the 
British  West  India  Islands,  the  world  would  have 
been  spared  one  of  the  most  horrible  chapters  in  its 
history. 

The  Encumbered  Estates  Act  was  one  result  of 
the  Irish  famine.  Before  famine  visited  Ireland, 
many  of  the  landlords  were  deeply  involved  in  debt 
— indeed,  many  of  them  were  landlords  only  in 
name.  Loaded  down  with  mortgages  and  tied  with 
divers  family  settlements,  they  could  scarcely  be 
said  to  be  the  owners  of  the  estates  they  claimed. 
The  annual  rent-roll  might  be  high,  yet  the  landlord 
found  that  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  income 
reverted  to  him.  This  condition  of  things  had  the 
natural  effect,  in  the  case  of  the  less  conscientious 
of  the  class,  of  extorting  ruinous  rack-rents  from 


866  POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAOT). 

the  tenants,  who  in  default  of  payment  were  ruthlessly 
evicted.  The  Encumbered  Estates  Act  was  designed 
"  to  enable  a  court  especially  constituted  to  order 
the  sale  of  estates  encumbered  by  indebtedness,  on 
the  petition  so  praying  of  any  person  sufficiently 
interested  as  owner  or  creditor  ;  all  statutes,  settle- 
ments, deeds  or  covenants  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing ;  to  the  end  that  debts  justly  due  might 
be  paid  so  far  as  the  property  could  answer  them  ; 
that  a  proprietary  emancipated  from  the  injurious 
restraints  of  family  settlement  and  the  crushing 
burdens  of  family  debts  might  be  brought  to  the  aid 
of  the  Irish  land  system  ;  and  that  a  concise,  simple 
and  indefeasible  form  of  title  might  be  substituted 
for  the  voluminous,  confused  and  ponderous  legal 
scrolls  in  which  title  to  landed  property  was  hith- 
erto set  forth."  Early  in  February,  1848,  this  mea- 
sure was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but, 
owing  to  various  delays,  it  was  not  till  the  8th  of 
May  that  it  reached  its  final  stages  in  that  body. 
On  the  24th  of  July,  1848,  it  was  read  a  third  time 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in  a  few  days  more 
became  law. 

There  can  be  no  question  but  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Act  was  a  useful  measure  in  various  respects. 
In  the  breaking  up  and  selling  of  estates,  consequent 
on  its  operations,  many  Catholics  were  among  the 
purchasers.  The  time  of  its  enactment,  however, 
was  anything  but  an  opportune  one  for  the  class 
whose  interests  it  most  closely  touched.  Landed 
property  was  at  that  period  a  drug  in  the  market. 
Estates  were  sold  at  ruinously  low  prices  ;  in  man;? 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  867 

cases  the  proceeds  were  insufficient  to  meet  the 
mortgages,  and  the  proprietors  were  utterly  ruined. 
As  an  instance  of  the  depreciation  in  value,  it  may 
be  cited  that  Lough  Cooter  Castle,  in  County  Gal- 
way,  the  seat  of  Lord  Gort,  which  was  built  at  a  cost 
of  £70,000  was  sold  for  £17,000  ;  and  an  estate  that 
should  have  left  a  handsome  income  after  all  liabili- 
ties were  paid  was  unable  to  free  the  mortgage. 
Much  sympathy  was  manifested  towards  Lord  Gort, 
who  was  a  good  landlord  and  popular  with  his  ten- 
antry ;  but  there  were  many  others  whose  fate  the 
Irish  people  contemplated  with  equanimity,  if  not 
with  satisfaction.  Many  of  them  had  ruthlessly 
plundered  and  persecuted  their  tenants,  and  Nemesis 
had  now  overtaken  themselves. 

We  have  seen  that  evictions  on  a  gigantic  scale 
have  been  one  terrible  outcome  of  the  famine.  By 
1850,  the  number  of  evictions  going  on  attracted 
profound  alarm,  and  the  very  spirit  of  self-preserva- 
tion urged  some  organized  effort  to  stay  this  terri- 
ble outpouring  of  the  nation's  blood.  As  early, 
indeed,  as  the  Spring  of  1849,  public  meetings  were 
held  in  condemnation  of  the  wholesale  clearances 
which  were  going  on.  Following  upon  the  public 
meetings  came  the  formation  of  "  Tenant  Protection 
Societies."  Cullum,  in  the  County  Kilkenny,  has 
had  the  honor  of  organizing  the  first  of  those  socie- 
ties. Others  were  rapidly  formed  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Ulster,  led  on  by  the  high-minded  William 
Sharman  Crawford,  M.P.,  was  not  less  determined 
and  energetic  in  this  respect  than  the  others.  Now, 
although  Ulster  enjoyed  a  great  advantage  over  the 


868  fcOPULAB   HISTOBY  OF   IRELAND. 

other  provinces,  in  that  the  system  of  tenant-right 
was  recognized  there,  yet,  as  the  rent  was  always  a 
first  lien  on  the  tenant-right,  the  Ulster  farmers, 
with  the  pressure  of  famine  times,  soon  began  to 
feel  the  evil  effects  of  landlordism.  As  conserva- 
tive a  body  as  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of  Ulster,  at 
a  meeting  held  in  May,  1850,  adopted  a  resolution 
that  a  petition  be  presented  to  Parliament  in  favor 
of  tenant-right. 

On  the  6th  of  August,  1850,  a  truly  national  Con- 
ference was  held  in  Dublin,  to  devise  measures 
looking  towards  the  arrest  of  the  terrible  extermi- 
nating process  which  was  in  operation  all  over  the 
island.  The  Conference  lasted  four  days,  and  was 
presided  over  by  Dr.  James  McKnight,  of  the  Ban- 
ner of  Ulster.  Resolutions  were  adopted  declaring 
that  "  a  fair  valuation  of  rent  between  landlord  and 
tenant  in  Ireland  "  was  indispensable ;  that  "  the 
tenant  should  not  be  disturbed  in  his  possession  so 
long  as  he  paid  such  rent";  and  that  "the  tenant 
should  have  a  right  to  sell  his  interest  with  all  its 
incidents  at  the  highest  market  value."  And  m 
view  of  the  fact  that  crushing  arrears  of  rent  had 
been  accruing  during  the  famine  years,  the  following 
resolution  was  also  adopted  : 

"That,  in  any  valuation  which  shall  be  made 
before  the  31st  of  December — the  valuators  shall, 
on  the  demand  of  either  landlord  or  tenant,  inquire 
into  the  arrears  of  rent  due  by  the  tenant ;  shall 
estimate  the  amount  which  during  the  famine  years 
would  have  been  due  and  payable  for  rent  under  it 
valuation.,  if  such  had  been  made,  according  to  the 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF   IRELAND.  869 

prices  and  circumstances  of  same  years,  and  also  the 
amount  which  during  the  same  period  has  actually 
been  paid  for  rent  to  the  landlord  ;  shall  award  the 
balance,  if  any,  to  be  the  arrears  then  due ;  and 
that  the  amount  so  awarded  for  arrears  be  payable 
by  installments,  at  such  period  as  shall  be  fixed  by 
the  valuators,  and  shall  be  recoverable  in  all  re- 
spects as  if  it  were  rent." 

On  the  third  day,  a  new  organization  was  estab- 
lished, called  "The  Irish  Tenant  League."  Before 
the  Conference  separated,  a  Council  was  chosen  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty. 

The  new  movement  was  taken  up  throughout  the 
country  with  enthusiasm.  Everything  boded  well 
for  the  cause.  Protestants  and  Catholics  were 
working  shoulder  to  shoulder,  when  the  Durham 
Letter  of  Lord  John  Russell,  issued  on  the  4th  of 
November,  1850,  was  cast  as  a  firebrand  into  the 
ranks.  The  Catholic  Church  in  England  had  been 
just  organized  on  a  basis  of  diocesan  and  parochial 
divisions.  This  was  another  "Popish  encroach- 
ment," and  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  Lord  John 
Russell  would  have  an  act  passed  to  prevent  it. 
The  fierce  controversies  and  passions  arising  out  of 
the  Durham  Letter  broke  up  that  bond  of  union 
between  Catholics  and  Protestants  which  had  been 
happily  forming  at  the  time,  and  the  Tenant  League 
Buffered  in  consequence.  In  1851  the  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill  was  passed,  and  it  became  an  offense  for 
a  Catholic  prelate  to  write  "  Archbishop  of  West- 
minister "  or  "  Bishop  of  Cork  "  after  his  name. 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  871 


CHAPTEB  V. 

ALARM  ra  ENGLAND  AT  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  FRANCE. — ' 
THE  SADUER-KEOQH  TREACHERY. — THE  CRIMEAN 
WAS. — A  KOMANTIO  ABDUCTION.* 

The  year  1852  was  one  of  considerable  emotion 
and  excitement  in  England,  and  consequently,  of 
unfeigned  satisfaction  in  Ireland.  The  steady  pro- 
gress of  the  Prince  President  of  France  to  Imperial- 
ism had  alarmed  all  Europe,  and  revived  the  mili- 
tary spirit  which  hurled  his  great  uncle  from  a 
throne  to  a  prison.  In  England,  both  terror  and 
enthusiasm  were  strangely  combined,  and  the  form- 
ation of  a  volunteer  army  served  as  a  kind  of  safety- 
valve  to  allay  the  fears  of  invasion  and  to  strengthen 
the  military  ardor  of  the  country.  There  seemed 
good  cause  for  all  this  trepidation  and  preparation, 
for  it  was  too  evident  that  the  Bonapartist  Empire 
was  to  be  restored,  with  all  its  military  prestige  and 
traditional  hatred  of  England.  These  fears,  to  a 
certain  extent,  were  justified,  for  before  the  end  of 
the  year  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  President  of  the 
French  Kepublic,  was  Napoleon  the  Third.  His 
accession  to  the  throne  greatly  increased  public  appre- 
hension, for  it  was  generally  supposed  that  he  would 
inaugurate  a  European  war,  in  order  to  arouse  the 
martial  spirit  of  the  French  people,  and  to  divert  their 

*  Mitchell's  History  of  Ireland,  continued  from  1862  to  1889,  by 
David  P.  Conyngham,  L.LD.,  author  of  the  "Lives  of  the  Irish 
Saints  and  Martyrs  "  and  other  works. 


872  K>PULAB  mSTOBY  OP  IBELAND. 

criticisms  upon  his  violation  of  faith  and  honor. 
Thus  was  England  and  other  European  nations  kept 
in  a  state  of  suspense,  and  compelled  to  place  both 
their  armies  and  navies  upon  a  war  footing. 

Lord  John  Russell's  Whig  Ministry  having  been 
defeated  on  the  Militia  Bill,  he  resigned  and  was 
succeeded  by  Lord  Derby  and  a  Tory  Administra- 
tion. Under  him  the  Free  Trade  League  was  reor- 
ganized, and  secured  much  support  from  the  coun- 
tenance of  the  Minister.  In  July  a  dissolution  of 
Parliament  took  place,  and  a  general  election  fol- 
lowed. 

The  Elections  in  Ireland  were  characterized  by  a 
strong  partisan  spirit.  Tenant-right  had  become  a 
national  issue.  There  was  also  much  bitterness  of 
feeling  on  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  which, 
though  allowed  to  fall  into  disuse,  had  irritated  the 
people  by  its  futile  attempt  at  a  revival  of  the  penal 
laws. 

The  supporters  of  "  The  Irish  Tenant  League," 
which  had  been  established  in  1850,  flung  themselves 
into  the  election  contest  with  a  fierce  energy,  and 
with  the  determination  of  sending  to  Parliament  so 
many  Irish  Members  pledged  to  their  policy  as 
would  seriously  impede  the  action  of  Parliament,  if 
not  force  from  it  a  settlement  of  the  land  question. 
All  the  earthly  hopes  of  the  Irish  people  were  fixed 
on  the  return  of  an  honest,  independent  party. 
The  crowbar  brigade  was  equally  active,  and  as 
there  was  no  vote  by  ballot  then,  and  the  helpless 
tenants  were  confronted  with  the  terrible  alternatives 
of  either  supporting  their  oppressors  and  strength- 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OF   IRELAND.  873 

ing  their  power  to  tyrannize  over  them,  or  of  opposing 
them  and  thus  court  certain  eviction. 

A  new  party  had  sprung  up  outside  the  Tenant 
League.  Their  bitter  opposition  to  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell's Titles  Bill,  and  their  zealous  officiousness  in 
defense  of  the  Catholic  Church,  gained  over  to  their 
side  many  adherents  among  the  clergy.  The  con- 
trolling spirits  among  these  defenders  of  the  Church 
were  Mr.  John  Sadlier,  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Carlow,  and  William  Keogh,  an  adventurous  bar- 
rister, who  had  been  elected  for  Athlone. 

The  outburst  of  "Papal  Aggression"  in  England 
opened  a  wide  field  for  the  ambitious  fanaticism  of 
these  designing  knaves.  The  Tenant  League  lead- 
ers, led  on  by  such  men  as  Frederick  Lucas,  Dr. 
Gray,  John  Francis  Maguire  and  Dr.  James  Mc- 
Knight,  tried  hard  to  unite  both  Protestants  and 
Catholics  upon  one  common  national  platform,  and 
had  succeeded  to  a  great  extent  in  reconciling  secta- 
rian differences,  and  allaying  the  fanaticism  of  the 
North.  On  the  other  hand,the  Keogh  and  Sadlier  party 
tended  to  hopelessly  antagonize  Protestants  and 
Catholics,  by  their  bitter  denunciations  of  the 
former,  and  by  the  establishment  of  a  Catholic  De- 
fense Association.  So  adroitly  did  these  place-hunt- 
ing intriguers  play  their  game,  that  they  secured  the 
confidence  and  support  of  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Mur- 
ray, the  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  of  his 
successor,  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Cullen,  at  that  time 
Archbishop  of  Armagh. 

Despite  the  marked  favor  shown  by  the  prelates 
and  priests  to  Keogh  and  Sadlier,  they  were  the 


874  POPULAB  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

objects  of  suspicion  and  distrust  to  keen  observers 
of  events  in  Ireland.  They  were  conscious  of  this 
themselves,  and  protested  overmuch  against  such 
base  slanders.  At  a  banquet  given  in  Athlone,  at 
which  Archbishop  McHale  presided,  Mr.  Keogh,  in 
earnest  and  solemn  language,  said  :  "  Whigs  or  To- 
nes, Peelites  or  Protectionists,  are  all  the  same  to 
me;  I  will  fight  for  my  religion  and  my  country,  scorn- 
ing and  defying  calumny.  I  declare,  in  the  most 
solemn  manner,  before  this  august  assembly,  I  shall 
not  regard  any  party.  I  know  that  the  road  I  take 
docs  not  lead  to  preferment.  I  do  not  belong  to 
the  "Whigs ;  I  do  not  belong  to  the  Tories.  Here, 
in  the  presence  of  my  constituents  and  my  country 
— and  I  hope  I  am  not  so  base  a  man  as  to  make  an 
avowal  which  could  be  contradicted  to-morrow,  if  I 
was  capable  of  doing  that  which  is  insinuated 
againfit  me — I  solemnly  declare,  if  there  was  a  Peelite 
administration  in  office  to-morrow,  it  would  be  noth- 
ing to  me.  I  will  not  support  any  party  which  does 
not  make  it  the  first  ingredient  of  its  political  exist- 
ence to  Repeal  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act." 

In  like  manner  he  pledged  himself  not  to  support 
any  party  which  did  not  undertake  to  settle  the 
laud  question  and  abolish  the  Established  Church. 
The  Irish  landlords  he  denounced  as  "the  most 
heartless,  the  most  thriftless,  and  the  most  indefen- 
sible landocracy  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  The 
marvelous  eloquence  of  Mr.  Keogh,  his  oath-bound 
abjurations,  and  his  vehement  protestations,  did 
much  to  silence  the  doubts  of  those  who  looked  upon 
him  and  bis  associates  with  suspicion  and  mistrust 


POPULAE  HISTOEY   OF  IBELAND.  875 

In  the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Cullen,  who,  on  the  7th 
of  April,  1852,  was  named  as  successor  to  Dr.  Mur- 
ray in  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin,  he  had  found  a 
warm  friend  and  supporter,  and  his  party  was  recog« 
nized  by  the  prelate  as  the  champions  of  the  Church. 

Some  impulsive  writers  in  the  Nation  and  other 
journals,  who  were  loud  in  their  praise  of  the  Car- 
bonari Mazzini  and  Young  Italy,  helped  to  preju- 
dice the  Archbishop  against  the  National  party,  and 
looking  upon  Messrs.  Sadlier  and  Keogh  as  the  or- 
thodox defenders  of  order  and  religion,  his  influence 
leaned  towards  them  in  the  ensuing  election. 

Ireland  was  sorely  distracted  by  the  conflicting 
issues  and  rival  parties  engaged  in  the  election  of 
1852.  The  landlord  interests  were  represented  by 
Whigs  and  Tories  alike,  and  the  tenants  were  ex- 
pected to  vote,  without  any  regard  to  their  own  con- 
victions, for  either,  just  as  the  landlord  desired, 
otherwise  they  could  reckon  the  consequences. 

The  Irish  parties  were  divided  into  "Tenant 
Leaguers  "  and  "  Catholic  Defenders,"  who  opposed 
each  other  just  as  bitterly  as  they  did  the  common 
enemy,  and  in  several  places  they  came  into  open 
conflict,  and  blood  was  shed,  not  for  principle,  but 
for  party. 

The  result  of  the  election  was  strongly  in  favor  of 
the  Tenant  League  party.  Lucas  was  returned  for 
Meath ;  Gavan  Duffy,  for  New  Koss  ;  Maguire,  for 
Dungarvan  ;  and  Henry  Moore,  for  Mayo  ;  but  Dr. 
Gray  was  beaten  for  Monaghan.  On  the  other  hand, 
John  Sadlier,  hia  brother  James,  his  three  cousins, 
Frank  and  Vincent  Scully  and  Kobert  Keating,  as 


876  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELATO. 

well  as  Mr.  Keogh,  were  all  returned.  The  result  of 
this  election  gave  a  narrow  majority  to  the  Liberal 
party. 

On  Wednesday,  September  8th,  a  general  confer- 
ence of  Irish  Members  of  Parliament  favorable  to 
tenant-right  was  held  in  Dublin,  at  which  forty 
members  were  present.  At  this  meeting  a  resolution 
was  passed  declaring  their  future  parliamentary 
policy  and  action,  in  which  they  pledged  to  hold 
themselves  "  perfectly  independent  of,  and  to  act  in 
opposition  to,  any  government  which  did  not  make 
it  a  part  of  their  policy  and  a  Cabinet  question  to 
give  to  the  tenantry  of  Ireland  a  measure  embody- 
ing the  principles  of  Mr.  Sherman  Crawford's  bill." 

On  September  14th,  1852,  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
died  at  Walmer  Castle,  in  the  eighty-fourth  year  of 
his  age.  His  end  was  as  calm  and  peaceful  as  his 
life  had  been  turbulent  and  glorioua 

On  November  the  4th,  the  new  Parliament  opened. 
Its  existence  was  short-lived,  for  on  the  17th  of  the 
following  month  the  Derby  Government  was  defeated 
and  went  out  of  office  a  few  days  afterwards,  and 
Lord  Aberdeen  was  called  on  to  form  a  new  Cabinet. 

The  Derby  Ministry  was  defeated  by  the  weight 
of  the  votes  of  Irish  Members,  consequently  there 
was  great  rejoicing  in  Ireland  at  the  event,  and  all 
eyes  turned  hopefully  to  the  Irish  party,  for  it  was 
evident  that  the  fate  of  the  Ministry,  nay,  even  of 
Ireland  itself,  was  in  their  hands. 

The  news  from  London  was  eagerly  looked  for. 
Whispers  of  treason  and  disaster  were  abroad,  un« 
fortunately  to  be  realized.  Ireland's  curse  of  treach* 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  877 

ery  and  disunion  again  handed  her  over  a  manacled 
slave  to  England.  Lord  Aberdeen  had  formed  his 
Ministry.  John  Sadlier  was  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
and  William  Keogh,  the  Irish  Solicitor-General. 

This  treacherous  desertion  of  the  cause  of  the 
people  by  Messrs.  Sadlier  and  Keogh  was  a  sad 
blow  to  the  Clerical  party,  who  had  looked  upon 
them  as  their  champions,  and  it  also  paralyzed  the 
efforts  of  the  National  party  in  general  The  people 
had  made  terrible  sacrifices  at  the  polls,  opposing 
their  landlords  almost  in  the  face  of  certain  eviction. 
What  had  they  gained  by  all  this?  They  had  sim- 
ply succeeded  in  placing  in  office  a  few  men  who  had 
merely  used  them  as  stepping-stones  to  power  and 
place.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  under  these 
circumstances  they  were  becoming  heartily  sick  of 
Parliamentary  agitation.  A  kind  of  political  torpor 
seized  the  nation ;  agitation  had  ceased,  and  England 
pointed  to  the  fact  as  proof  that  Ireland  was  content 
and  prosperous.  Though  the  national  aspirations 
were  dumb,  they  were  not  dead.  There  was  a  kind 
of  sullen  indifference  and  deep  despair  everywhere. 
The  Government  had  bought  off  the  leaders,  and 
exploded  the  hopes  and  plans  of  the  honest  men 
among  the  tenant-leaguers.  It  was  no  wonder, 
therefore,  that  the  people  lost  faith  in  one  another, 
their  confidence  in  the  leaders,  and  their  reliance  on 
constitutional  agitation.  The  chill  of  disappoint- 
ment, the  shock  of  recent  betraj'als,  drove  some  of 
the  best  men  in  disgust  into  retirement.  As  Duffy 
truly  said,  Ireland  lay  "  like  a  corpse  on  the  dissect- 
ing-table;"  but  he  might  have  added,  that  "she  only 


878  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

sleepeth,"  for  both  the  Phoenix  conspiracy  and  the 
Fenian  organization  breathed  new  life  and  hopes  into 
her,  and  resuscitated  her  from  her  apathetic  slumber. 

Times  of  repose  afford  poor  materials  to  the  his- 
torian, therefore  little  of  importance  occurred  in 
Ireland  from  the  treason  of  the  Sadlier  party  until 
Fenianism  commenced  to  inspire  the  people  with 
hope  and  life. 

The  new  Parliament  seemed  to  ignore  Irish  affairs, 
as  if  the  fact  that  John  Sadlier  was  a  Cabinet  Min- 
ister should  satisfy  the  people  of  that  country.  In 
the  new  Coalition  Ministry,  formed  by  Lord  Aber- 
deen, Mr.  Gladstone  first  appeared  as  a  Cabinet 
Member,  for  he  was  appointed  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  with  Lord  Palmerston  as  Home  Secre- 
tary, and  Lord  John  Eussell  in  the  Foreign  Office. 

England  had  enjoyed  a  profound  peace  since 
Waterloo,  but  it  seemed  as  if  the  death  of  Welling- 
ton was  the  signal  for  foreign  diplomacy  and  rational 
complications.  The  so-called  Eastern  Question, 
which  simply  meant  England's  dread  of  Russian 
encroachment  upon  her  Indian  possessions,  con- 
stantly loomed  up  as  a  sort  of  national  bugbear. 

England  felt  that  she  had  a  deep  interest  in 
watching  over  every  movement  that  threatened  in 
any  way  to  interfere  with  India.  Turkey  had  ceased 
to  be  a  cause  of  terror  to  either  England  or  Rus- 
sia, but  the  latter  nation  showed  strong  indications 
of  her  desire  to  absorb  Turkey,  making  Constanti- 
nople the  capital  of  her  great  empire.  England 
was  alive  to  the  danger  of  allowing  her  to  get  con- 
trol of  the  high  road  to  India.  This  Eastern  Ques- 


POPULAB  HISTORY   OP  IRELAND.  879 

tion  seemed  to  increase  in  intensity  and  interest, 
and  it  soon  became  evident  that  nothing  less  than  war 
could  settle  it.  Any  doubt  on  this  point  was  re- 
moved when  the  Kussians  destroyed  the  Turkish 
fleet  in  the  Black  Sea,  in  November,  1853.  Thus, 
while  the  "Western  Powers  kept  talking  about  peace 
and  busied  themselves  with  unmeaning  conventions, 
Russia  had  commenced  the  conflict  and  inaugurated 
the  Crimean  "War. 

England's  ultimatum  to  Russia  was  dispatched  on 
February  27th,  1854,  and  was  soon  followed  by  a 
declaration  of  war.  The  fact  that  an  alliance  de- 
fensive and  offensive  existed  between  England 
and  France  gave  considerable  backbone  to  the 
latter.  On  the  14th  of  September,  1854,  twenty- 
seven  thousand  English,  thirty  thousand  French  and 
seven  thousand  Turks  landed  on  the  shores  of  the 
Crimea.  The  battle  of  the  Alma  followed  a  few 
days  afterwards,  in  which  victory  leaned  towards 
the  Allies,  for  Prince  Mentschikoff  was  forced  to 
abandon  his  entrenched  position  and  fall  back 
towards  Sebastopol. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  in  England  at  the  news 
of  this  victory,  which  in  itself  was  of  little  import- 
ance. All  the  gasconaders  of  Parliament  and  the 
press  indulged  in  liberal  laudation  of  the  irresist- 
ible bravery  of  the  English  soldiers ;  indeed,  one 
should  fancy,  on  reading  the  papers  of  the  day,  that 
the  French  were  simply  spectators  of  the  conflict, 
while  the  fact  is,  on  them  fell  the  brunt  of  the  battle. 
This  laudation  was  soon  turned  into  murmuring,  for 
the  battles  at  Sebastopol,  Balaklava  and  Inkermann 


880  POPULAB  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

which  followed,  brought  consternation  to  England, 
and  made  her  tremble  for  her  Indian  possessions. 
The  whole  campaign  seemed  to  be  a  muddle  on  the 
pail  ot  the  English,  and  only  for  their  French  allies 
they  could  not  sustain  it  one  month.  To  make  the 
matter  worse,  the  commissariat  supplies  were  de- 
layed or  so  damaged  as  to  be  unfit  for  use,  and  the 
soldiei's  had  to  pass  through  a  terrible  Crimean 
winter  with  poor  supplies  of  tents,  food  and  clothing. 
The  officers  and  men  were  alike  exposed  to  hunger 
and  bitter  cold,  and  more  perished  in  this  way  than 
in  actual  battle. 

It  is  not  our  province  to  follow  the  Crimean  war, 
as  Ireland  was  little  affected  by  it,  except  so  far  as 
to  open  up  a  good  market  to  the  farmers  for  their 
produce,  and  to  give  an  excellent  pretext  to  the 
landlords  to  raise  the  rents  on  their  tenants,  which, 
by-thc-way,  they  did  not  lower  with  the  subsequent 
depression  of  prices.  The  Crimean  war,  though,  might 
have  inculcated  a  salutary  lesson  on  Irish  patriots. 
England,  in  her  need  of  troops,  had  to  leave  Ireland 
to  be  garrisoned  by  policemen,  who  are  only 
loyal  while  England  has  the  upper  hand,  and  militia 
who  were  simply  disciplined  rebels.  Yet,  with  such 
advantages  in  her  favor,  Ireland  was  helpless  and 
powerless. 

The  '48  movement  had  evaporated  in  a  miserable 
fiasco ;  had  it  husbanded  its  strength  until  '54  it 
might  have  built  up  a  republic  out  of  the  ruins  of  a 
nation.  It  is  ever  thus  with  Irish  revolutionary 
movements:  they  are  sure  to  take  place  to  suit  the 
interest  of  England,  and  at  a  time  that  she  can 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  881 

J 

easily  crush  them  out,  either  by  the  bayonet  or  the 
dungeon. 

Though  this  may  appear  accidental,  it  is,  on  the 
contrary,  the  result  of  cool  calculation  on  the  part  of 
England.  Should  she  smell  trouble  ahead,  and 
should  any  disaffection  in  Ireland  threaten  to  para- 
lyze her  movements  in  European  affairs,  she  in- 
trigues and  plots  until  she  forces  the  Hotspurs  of  the 
enterprise  into  overt  acts  that  render  them  amenable 
to  English  law.  The  Irish  have  yet  to  learn  to  be 
patient  under  taunts,  to  unite  and  organize,  but 
above  all  to  watch  and  wait,  for  a  few  years  amount 
to  nothing  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  while  success  is 
everything. 

With  the  close  of  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  which 
lasted  nearly  a  year,  the  Crimean  war  may  be  said 
to  have  ended.  The  death  of  the  Czar  Nicholas, 
who  embodied  the  military  spirit  of  Russia,  was 
taken  advantage  of  by  Austria,  and  chiefly  through 
the  friendly  interference  of  that  power  the  Crimean 
war  was  brought  to  a  close. 

Two  events  which  occurred  about  this  time, 
though  not  of  national  importance,  still  created  con- 
siderable excitement  both  in  England  and  Ireland. 
The  one  was  the  suicide  of  John  Sadlier;  the  other, 
nothing  less  than  the  romantic  affair  of  an  abduction, 
which,  only  for  the  high  social  standing  of  the  par- 
ties concerned,  would  have  created  little  or  no  at- 
tention, particularly  in  Ireland. 

John  Garden,  of  Barnane  House,  one  of  the  mag- 
nates of  the  County  Tipperary,  a  great  landlord, 
grand  juror,  magistrate,  deputy-lieutenant,  and. 


882  POPULAR  HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 

general  exterminator,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at 
Rathronan,  the  residence  of  the  Hon.  George  Gough, 
eldest  son  of  Field-Marshal  Gough,  the  hero 
of  Sobraon.  Captain  Gough  had  married  an 
English  lady  of  the  name  of  Arbuthnot,  whose  sister, 
Eleanor,  resided  with  him.  With  this  lady  Mr. 
Garden  fell  desperately  in  love,  but  his  passion  was 
not  reciprocated.  Maddened  by  his  rejection  and 
disappointment,  he  resorted  to  the  terrible  alterna- 
tive of  abducting  the  young  lady. 

On  Sunday,  July  2d,  1854,  Mrs.  Gough  and  her 
sister,  accompanied  by  a  Miss  Linden,  attended 
divine  worship  at  Rathronan  church,  which  is  sit- 
uated about  midways  between  Fothard  and  Clon- 
mel.  Captain  Gough  was  absent  in  Dublin,  so  that 
the  ladies  were  escorted  only  by  the  driver.  On 
their  return  from  church  they  were  attacked  by  Mr. 
Garden  and  a  party  of  six  men,  who  tried  to  drag  Miss 
Arbuthnot  from  the  carriage.  The  ladies  made  a 
desperate  resistance,  while  the  driver,  named  Dwyer, 
fought  heroically  to  protect  his  charge.  A  young 
peasant  named  McGrath,  aiid  a  man  named  South- 
wick,  hearing  the  screams  of  the  ladies,  rushed  to 
their  assistance,  and  gave  such  opposition  that  Mr. 
Garden  and  his  desperadoes  were  forced  to  retreat 
without  the  object  of  their  criminal  intent  The 
result  was  that  "the  Lord  of  Barnane"was  flung 
into  prison,  and  at  the  Gloumel  assizes,  which  took 
place  on  the  27th  of  the  month,  he  was  sentenced  to 
two  years'  imprisonment,  with  hard  labor,  in  the 
county  jail,  which  sentence  was  fully  carried  out 

On  the  4th  of  August,  1866,  Mr.  Gavan  Duffy,  the 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  883 

founder  of  the  Nation  newspaper,  announced  that 
he  was  about  throwing  up  his  seat  in  Parliament, 
to  leave  for  Australia.  He  was  succeeded  in  the 
management  of  the  Nation  by  John  Corhel  Hoey, 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  and  M.  Clery.  In  his  valedictory 
address,  Mr.  Duffy  described,  in  moving  language, 
the  then  hopeless  state  of  Ireland.  "A  change 
might  come,"  he  said  ;  "but  unless  the  existing  con- 
dition of  things  alter,  there  is  no  more  hope  for 
Ireland  than  for  a  corpse  on  the  dissecting- table." 

Duffy  sailed  for  Australia  in  November,  but  not 
until  he  had  closed  the  eyes  of  his  gifted  friend, 
Frederick  Lucas,  who  died  on  the  23d  of  October, 
1855. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  tide  of  Irish  politics  had 
turned  in  1854  with  the  treachery  of  Sadlier  and 
Keogh.  Retribution  seemed  to  follow  in  their  track. 
It  is  well  known  that  Keogh  indulged  freely  in 
drink  and  dissipation,  in  his  vain  efforts  to  still  the 
voice  of  conscience,  and  that  he  finally  died  the 
death  of  an  idiotic  drunkard.  As  for  John  Sadlier, 
his  gilded  life  was  a  hell  to  him,  and  while  the  world 
was  lost  in  admiration  at  his  overmastering  talents 
and  great  financial  schemes,  this  man  of  envied 
success,  the  millionaire,  the  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
was  propping  up  his  tottering  power  and  broken  for- 
tunes by  forging  deeds,  conveyances  and  bills,  for 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  sterling.  Driven 
by  overpowering  disasters,  and  the  exposure  of  his 
frauds,  he  finally  ended  the  terrible  conflict  by  com- 
mitting suicide. 

On  Sunday  morning,  February  17th,  1866,  on  a 


884  POPULAB  HISTOBT  OF  IRELAND. 

little  mound  on  Hampstead  Heath,  near  London, 
the  passers-by  noticed  a  gentleman  stretched  as  if 
in  sleep.  A  silver  tankard  lay  on  the  ground  beside 
him.  It  smelt  strongly  of  pmssic  acid.  It  was  the 
corpse  of  John  Sadlier,  the  banker. 

The  news  flashed  through  the  kingdom.  There 
was  alarm  in  London;  there  was  a  wild  panic  in  Ire- 
land. The  Tipperary  Bank  closed  its  doors,  and 
thousands  of  poor  people  who  had  their  savings  in 
it  were  irretrievably  ruined. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field  visited  Eng- 
land, to  enlist  capitalists  in  his  great  scheme  of  con- 
structing an  electric  telegraph  line  under  the 
Atlantic.  Though  his  plan  was  listened  to  with 
polite  curiosity,  he  found  it  difficult  to  secure  any 
active  co-operation  from  the  merchants  and  scien- 
tific men  before  whom  he  laid  his  news. 

M.  de  Lesseps  visited  England  a  few  months 
later,  full  of  his  Suez  Canal  project.  He  was  re- 
ceived with  coldness,  and  his  schemes  denounced  as 
impracticable ;  besides,  it  was  said  that  such  a  canal; 
if  it  could  be  constructed,  would  be  a  standing 
menace  to  England's  interests  in  Turkey  and  Egypt 
Luckily  neither  Mr.  Field  nor  M.  de  Lesseps  were 
persons  to  be  discouraged  by  such  rebuffs.  When 
tiie  success  of  both  schemes  became  apparent,  Eng- 
land's appreciation  was  even  more  marked  than  her 
former  disapprobation. 

The  year  1857  was  made  memorable  by  the  Sepoy 
outbreak  in  India,  which  threatened  the  power  nnd 
ascendency  of  England  in  that  vast  empire.  Though 
called  a  revolt,  it  was  a  rebellion  of  a  combination  of 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  885 

the  natives  against  England — a  combination  of  mili- 
tary grievances,  national  hatred  and  religious  fana- 
ticism. Though  the  ostensible  cause  was  opposition 
to  greased  cartridges,  as  being  repulsive  to  the  reli- 
gious convictions  both  of  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan, 
this  quarrel  was  but  the  spark  that  fired  the  combus- 
tible materials  which  England's  crushing  despotism 
had  prepared  for  the  holocaust. 

The  native  troops  at  Meerut  had  broken  into 
mutiny,  killing  their  officers  and  massacreiug  several 
Europeans.  They  then  marched  on  Delhi,  and  pro- 
claimed the  aged  king  Emperor  of  India.  The 
mutiny  was  transfigured  into  a  revolutionary  war, 
and  India  was  deluged  with  blood. 

The  massacres  of  Lucknow,  Cawpore  and  else- 
where were  avenged  by  similar  brutality  on  the 
part  of  the  English,  who  tied  their  prisoners  to  the 
cannon's  mouth  and  blew  them  to  pieces. 

Among  the  most  cruel  and  relentless  of  England's 
enemies  was  Nana  Sahib,  heir  to  one  of  the  deposed 
princes  of  India.  This  man  has  been  painted  by 
English  writers  as  a  fiend,  a  monster  of  vice  and 
savage  cruelty,  whilst  in  India  his  memory  is  still 
revered  as  that  of  an  avenger  raised  up  by  the  Prophet 
to  punish  the  unbelieving  Ghour.  But,  then,  Eng- 
land's policy  has  ever  been  to  slander  her  enemies 
in  order  to  justify  her  own  aggression  ;  thus  we  find 
in  Irish  history  the  men  whom  she  has  branded  as 
traitors  loved  and  revered  by  the  nation  as  pa- 
triots and  martyrs. 

The  Indian  outbreak  is  purely  a  matter  of  Eng- 
lish history,  and  therefore  we  cannot  enter  into  the 


886  *OPUIAB   HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 

terrible  details  of  the  atrocious  massacres  and 
butcheries  that  characterized  it.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
the  bloody  campaign  came  to  an  end,  and  that  on 
May  1st,  1859,  there  was  public  thanksgiving  in 
England  for  the  pacification  of  India. 

On  January  14th,  Felice  Orsini  and  his  fellow-con- 
spirators attempted  the  assassination  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon,  in  the  Rue  Lepelletier,  in  Paris,  by  fling- 
ing into  his  carriage  and  among  his  attendants  three 
bombs,  which,  though  the  Emperor  escaped  without 
a  scratch,  killed  ten  persons,  wounding  one  hundred 
and  fifty-six  more,  most  of  whom  were  harmless  and 
unconcerned  spectators  of  the  procession.  Orsini  paid 
for  his  rash  attempt  on  the  scaffold,  but  Napoleon, 
no  doubt,  fearing  a  repetition  of  the  terrible  missiles, 
warmly  entered  into  the  cause  of  Italy. 

This  affair  created  an  outburst  of  popular  indig- 
nation in  France  against  England.  One  of  the  per- 
sons implicated  was  a  Frenchman,  long  resident  in 
London ;  the  plot  was  hatched  in  England,  the 
bombs  were  manufactured  in  Birmingham  by  an 
Englishman,  and  were  ordered  for  Orsini  by  an 
Englishman. 

In  1859  the  astute  policy  of  Count  Cavour,  Min- 
ister to  Victor  Emmanuel,  King  of  Sardinia,  forced  a 
rupture  between  France  and  Austria.  Cavour's 
policy  was  to  establish  a  united  Italian  kingdom 
under  his  sovereign.  With  this  object  in  view,  he 
precipitated  a  war  between  Italy  and  Austria,  hav- 
ing first  compromised  the  Emperor  Napoleon  in  the 
interest  of  the  former.  Lombardy  had  revolted,  and 
on  the  9th  of  April  fifty  thousand  men  had  set  out 


POPULAB  HTSTOBT  OF  IRELAND.  887 

from  Vienna.  On  the  21st,  an  Austrian  ultimatum 
was  dispatched  to  Turin,  calling  on  Piedmont  to 
disarm  the  menacing  forces  it  had  been  assembling 
for  some  time. 

To  this  Victor  Emmanuel  replied  by  issuing  an  ad- 
dress to  his  army,  declaring  hostilities  against  Aus- 
tria. Count  Cavour  had  meanwhile  telegraphed  to 
the  French  Emperor  :  "  Help,  help !  The  Auatrians 
are  upon  us  I" 

The  French  army  marched  immediately  from 
Paris  for  Italy.  On  the  same  day  the  Austrians  at 
one  point  and  the  Sardinians  at  another  crossed  the 
Ticino.  Montebello  was  fought  on  the  20th  of  May; 
Palestro,  on  the  31st;  Magenta,  on  the  4th  of  June; 
and  Solferino  on  the  24th.  Suddenly  Napoleon 
offered  terms  of  peace,  and  the  Treaty  of  Villa- 
franca,  on  the  llth  of  July,  closed  the  Italian  war 
of  1859. 

During  the  conflict,  a  curious  struggle  of  sym- 
pathies prevailed  in  Ireland.  The  people  cherished 
love  for  France;  and  apprehensions  for  the  Pope,  on 
the  other  hand,  placed  them  in  an  unpleasant 
dilemma.  The  Catholic  prelates  and  clergy  de- 
nounced the  conduct  of  Napoleon  as  treacherous  and 
perfidious.  His  assurances  of  safety  and  protec- 
tion for  the  Pope  they  looked  upon  as  delusive,  for 
they  justly  reasoned  that  when  Francis  Joseph  had 
been  crushed,  the  Pope's  turn  would  corae  next. 
Popular  feeling  in  Ireland  followed  the  French 
Hag,  the  more  so  as  the  descendant  of  an  Irishman, 
General  Patrick  MacMahon,  had  turned  the  tide  of 
victory  at  Magenta,  aud  for  his  dissliuguished  her  vices 


888  POPULAR   BISTORT   OF   IBEULND. 

was  honored  by  the  Emperor  with  the  title  of  Duke 
of  Magenta  and  Marshal  of  France. 

A  sword  of  honor  was  presented  to  him  by  the 
Irish,  a  mark  of  regard  which  the  Marshal  accepted 
with  gratitude,  stating  in  his  address  to  the 
deputation  which  went  to  France  to  present  it: 
"  I  will  leave  one  day  to  my  eldest  son,  Patrick, 
this  magnificent  sword.  It  will  be  for  him,  as  it  is 
for  myself,  a  new  pledge  of  those  close  ties  which 
should  unite  him  forever  to  the  noble  country  of 
his  ancestors." 

While  Napoleon  was  theorizing  over  his  chimer- 
ical project  of  an  Italian  Confederation  with  the 
Pope  at  its  head,  the  wily  Cavour  was  secretly 
laying  plans  to  foil  him  and  to  place  Victor 
Emmanuel  at  the  head  of  a  United  Italy.  He  had 
used  France  to  strangle  Austria,  and  his  policy  was 
to  neutralize  France  either  by  her  interests  or 
dread  of  the  intervention  of  some  other  power. 

Savoy  and  Nice  were  ceded  to  France  at  the  con- 
clusion of  peace,  while  the  Romagna,  Parma  and 
Modena  were  appropriated  by  the  Sardinian  King. 
Victor  Emmanuel  openly  rejected  the  Villafranca 
treaty,  thus  making  it  evident  that  he  was  perfectly 
in  the  hands  of  Cavour,  Garibaldi,  Mazzini,  and 
the  Carbonari  of  Italy,  all  of  whom  were  bent  on 
the  overthrow  of  the  Pope. 

The  year  1860  found  Ireland  heaving  with  intense 
excitement.  Her  Catholic  enthusiasm  was  stirred 
to  the  profoundest  depths.  The  Papacy  was 
threatened,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  Pope  would 
bo  openly  attacked.  Meetings  were  held  all  over 


TOPULAB   HISTORY  OF  ICELAND.  889 

the  country  to  tender  sympathy  and  support  to  His 
Holiness.  A  large  sura  of  money  was  collected  for 
his  aid. 

In  England  the  Italian  movement  was  hailed 
with  applause  and  delight,  and  even  the  press  pro- 
claimed that  the  Pope  should  not  be  allowed  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  a  United  Italy  and  liberty.  In 
Ireland,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  denounced  as  the 
rapacity  of  a  dishonest  state  to  undermine  the 
Pontifical  power,  and  as  a  blow  aimed  at  the 
Church. 

The  more  zealous  the  English  journals  became  in 
hounding  on  the  Italians,  the  more  earnest  became 
the  Irish  in  support  of  the  Pope.  England  sent 
forth  public  addresses,  men  and  money  to  help 
Garibaldi  and  Victor  Emmanuel  Ireland  poured 
forth  her  treasures  into  the  lap  of  the  Pope,  and 
soon  sent  her  young  manhood  to  fight  his  battles. 

Within  a  month  after  the  matter  was  broached, 
nearly  two  thousand  Irish  Pontifical  Zouaves  were 
on  their  way  in  small  parties  to  the  Roman  States, 
where  they  safely  arrived,  and  were  mobilized  under 
General  Lamoriciere. 

Had  the  means  allowed  their  transportation,  over 
twenty  thousand  young  men  could  have  been  sent 
within  two  months. 

Startling  events  followed  each  other  in  rapid  suc- 
cession in  Italy.  Sicily  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Garibaldi  and  his  legion.  On  the  8th  of  Septem- 
ber Naples  fell  without  opposition,  Francis  II. 
having  fled  to  Gaeta.  The  following  day  Victor 
Emmannel  was  proclaimed  King  of  Naples.  On 


S3J  tOPULAB  HISTORT   OF  ffiELAinX 

the  9th  of  September  Cavour  demanded  from  Car- 
dinal Antonelli  the  disbandment  of  Lamoriciere'a 
army.  Without  waiting  a  reply,  the  Sardinian  army 
surprised  Lamoriciere,  and  in  a  brief  campaign  the 
Pontifical  troops,  which  had  not  time  to  arm  or 
organize,  were  surprised  and  defeated  at  all  points. 

The  Irish  soldiers,  under  command  of  Major 
Myles  W.  O'Reilly,  were  nnder  drill  and  imper- 
fectly armed  in  Spoleto,  Perugia  and  Faligno. 
General  Fanti's  Corps,  after  taking  Perugia,  sum- 
moned Spoleto  to  surrender.  The  town  was  held 
by  Major  O'Reilly  and  three  hundred  Irishmen, 
besides  a  few  Franco-Belgians,  Austrians  and  native 
Italians. 

The  gallant  defense  made  by  the  Irish  commanded 
won  even  the  respect  of  General  Brignone,  of  the 
Italian  army,  who,  in  the  articles  of  capitulation,  says: 
"The  officers  and  soldiers  shall  be  treated  in  all 
respects  with  that  urbanity  and  the  regard  which 
bent  honorable  and  brave  troops,  as  they  have 
proved  themselves  to  be  in  this  fight." 

On  the  2Bth  of  September  Ancona  also  surrendered. 
Here,  too,  a  handful  of  Irish  greatly  distinguished 
themselves.  General  Lamoriciere,  in  bis  official  re- 
port of  the  campaign,  bears  testimony  to  the  bravery 
and  gallantry  of  the  Irish  at  Perugia,  at  Spoleto,  at 
Cartelfidardo  and  at  Ancona.  "  At  Perugia,"  he  says, 
"the  Irish  company  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
battalion  of  the  2d  Regiment  of  the  line  alone  showed 
themselves  determined  to  do  their  duty."  "At 
Spoleto,"  he  says,  "  the  Irish  defended  themselvei 
with  great  gallantry."  "  At  Castelfidardo,"  he  says, 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  891 

"  two  howitzers  were  moved  forward  under  a  very 
sharp  fire,  with  the  aid  of  the  Irish.  These  brave 
soldiers,  after  having  accomplished  the  mission 
with  which  they  were  charged,  reunited  themselves 
with  the  tirailleurs,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  bat- 
tle distinguished  themselves  in  their  ranks." 

The  Irish  Papal  Zouaves  were  welcomed  home  with 
demonstrations  of  admiration  and  joy.  At  every 
town  where  a  detachment  alighted  crowds  assem- 
beled,  wearing  green  boughs  and  flags.  They  were 
feted  in  every  town  and  village  which  had  sent  forth 
a  recruit  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  Pontifical  Zouaves, 
Their  enthusiastic  reception  at  home  was  stimulated 
by  the  sneaking  taunts  of  the  English  press,  which 
as  usual,  when  anything  Irish  is  concerned,  tried  to 
throw  ridicule  on  the  movement,  and  branded  the 
men  themselves  as  cowards  and  fanatical  hirelings, 
who,  Like  the  superstitious  Hindoos,  were  ready  and 
willing  to  immolate  themselves  at  the  dictation  of  their 
priesta  The  taunts  and  invectives,  of  the  English 
press  called  forth  fierce  rejoinders  on  the  part  of  the 
Irish.  But  as  slander  and  vilification  is  England's 
stock  in  trade,  where  Ireland  is  concerned,  it  would 
be  wiser  to  have  passed  over  her  abuse  in  silence. 

The  year  1860  opened  in  England  with  a  new 
and  strong  Ministry,  with  Lord  Palrnerston  at  its 
head,  Mr.  Gladstone  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  Lord  John  Russell,  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs, 

They  had  come  into  power  in  troublous  times. 
AJ1  over  the  world  there  seemed  to  be  an  upheaving, 
and  beneath  it  a  seething  volcano.  A  new  war  had 
broken  out  in  China,  Fenianism  was  gaining  stead- 


892  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

fly  in  Ireland,  while  across  the  Atlantic  were  heard 
the  first  munnurings  of  the  civil  war  in  America. 

John  Brown  had  made  his  famous  raid  into  Har- 
per's Ferry,  a  town  on  the  borders  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  in  order  to  aid  the  escape  of  slaves.  He 
was  executed  for  the  offense — we  will  not  call  it  a 
crime — and  with  his  last  sigh  on  that  gibbet  tree 
went  out  the  life  of  slavery. 

During  this  year,  the  relations  between  England 
and  China  were  much  disturbed,  while  in  England 
the  old  bngbear  of  a  French  invasion  gained  such 
hold  that  even  Lord  Palmerston  had  yielded  so  far 
to  public  alarm  as  to  propose  a  vote  of  two  million 
pounds  to  fortify  the  coasts  against  the  Emperor  of 
the  French. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  Crra,  WAB  IN  AMERICA. — THB  ENGLISH  IN  FAVOB 

OF  THE  SOUTH,  THE  IRISH  IN  FAVOR  OF  THE  NORTH. 

THE  "  ALABAMA." — THE  FENIAN  MOVEMENT. — THE 
RISING. — THE  MANCHESTER  MARTYRS. 

The  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  which  broke 
out  in  1861,  helped  to  intensify  the  bitter  feeling 
existing  between  England  and  Ireland.  England 
was  not  long  in  openly  giving  expression  to  her 
sympathies  with  the  South.  Though  her  lecturers 
and  writers  had  aroused  a  very  bitter  feeling  through- 
out the  country  against  negro  slavery  in  tho  Southern 
States,  though  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  was  a  textbook 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  893 

with  them  almost  as  sacred  as  the  Gospel,  still,  when 
the  issue  came  which  would  either  perpetuate  slavery 
or  abolish  it  forever,  the  duplicity  and  mock  philan- 
thropy of  England  were  made  manifest. 

The  cause  of  the  South  meant  slavery  and  the 
disruption  of  the  Great  Republic;  the  cause  of  the 
North  meant  the  death  of  slavery  and  the  triumph  of 
a  republican  form  of  government. 

England  was  not  long  in  choosing.  She  went  in 
for  slavery  and  monarchy  against  freedom  and  re- 
publicanism. Not  so  in  Ireland.  To  the  Irish  people 
America  was  the  Mecca  of  all  their  hopes ;  and  its 
republican  form  of  government,  their  idol  and 
model.  It  was  the  land  of  their  hopes,  the  home  of 
their  kindred,  and  for  it  and  its  free,  liberal  institu- 
tions they  were  as  ready  and  willing  to  lay  down 
their  lives  as  if  it  were  the  land  of  their  birth. 

The  struggle  in  America  was  one  for  life  and 
death  between  slavery  and  the  principles  of  modern 
society — between  monarchy  and  republicanism.  We 
are  chiefly  concerned  in  the  history  of  the  American 
Civil  War  in  so  far  as  it  concerned  England  and  Ire- 
land. From  the  fact  that  the  Irish  contributed  largely 
to  the  ranks  of  the  Federal  armies,  and  that  England 
supplied  to  the  Confederates  pirate-ships,  men, 
arms  and  ammunition,  the  struggle  has  become 
part  of  the  history  of  both  England  and  Ireland. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  President  Lincoln  was 
formally  sworn  into  office.  The  President  announced 
in  his  message  that  he  had  no  intention  to  interfere 
with  the  institution  of  slavery  where  it  existed;  that 
the  law  gave  him  no  power  to  do  so,  even  if  he  had 


894  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

the  inclination;  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  no  State 
could,  upon  its  own  mere  motion,  lawfully  get  out  of 
the  Union,  and  that  acts  of  violence  against  the 
United  States  must  be  regarded  as  insurrectionary 
and  revolutionary. 

On  February  18th,  1861,  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis 
announced  the  determination  of  the  South  to  main- 
tain its  independence  by  the  final  arbitrament  of  the 
sword,  "if  passion  or  lust  of  dominion  should 
cloud  the  judgment  or  influence  the  ambition  of  the 
North." 

The  State  of  South  Carolina,  which,  with  that  of 
Massachusetts,  did  more  to  fan  the  feeling  on  the 
slavery  and  anti-slavery  question  into  war  than  ah1 
the  other  States  combined, was  the  first  to  precipitate 
the  conflict,  thus  doing  away  with  all  possible  chances 
of  a  compromise. 

Fort  Sumter  guarded  the  entrance  to  Charleston, 
and  was  at  the  time  garrisoned  by  Federal  soldiers, 
and  floated  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  A  vessel 
sent  with  men  to  re-enforce  this  little  garrison  was 
fired  upon  by  the  Confederates,  and  a  few  days 
later,  April  12th,  1861,  they  opened  fire  on  the  fort 
from  batteries  which  they  had  erected  on  the  main- 
land. 

The  little  garrison  had  no  means  of  resistance, 
and  after  a  harmless  siege  of  two  days,  it  surren- 
dered. 

This  put  an  end  to  all  arbitration  and  com- 
promise, aud  as  a  consequence,  the  Great,  Rebellion 
followed.  Four  days  after  the  surrender  of  Fort 
Sumter,  President  Lincoln  issued  his  call  for  seventy- 


JPOPDLAR  HI8TOBT  OP  IRELAND.  895 

five  thousand  men,  which  was  cheerfully  responded 
to,  and  by  none  more  readily  than  by  the  Irish,  who 
were  to  be  found  in  every  regiment  and  company  in 
the  Federal  armies,  and  who  subsequently  gave 
several  distinct  organizations,  such  as  Meagher's 
Irish  Brigade  and  the  Corcoran  Legion,  to  the 
services  of  their  adopted  country. 

With  indecent  haste  England  recognized  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  On  May  8th  Lord  John 
Russell  announced  in  the  House  of  Commons  that, 
after  consulting  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown,  the 
Government  were  of  opinion  that  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy must  be  recognized  as  a  belligerent  power. 

On  the  13th,  a  neutrality  proclamation  was  issued 
by  the  Government,  which  was  de  facto  a  recognition 
of  the  Southern  States. 

The  dispute  between  the  Cabinets  at  Washington 
and  St.  James's  was  intensified  by  the  determination 
of  the  English  Government  not  to  surrender  to  the 
States  the  Confederate  envoys,  Slidell  and  Mason, 
who  were  captured  on  the  Trent. 

Far  more  serious  than  this,  as  a  cause  of  quarrel, 
was  the  fitting-out  of  the  Alabama  and  other  priva- 
teers from  English  ports,  in  order  to  prey  on  Ameri- 
can ships,  and  the  aid  given  by  the  English  Govern- 
ment, at  the  prompting  of  the  French  Emperor,  to 
the  Mexican  expedition,  which  was  a  diversion  in 
favor  of  the  Confederates. 

Englishmen  insisted  that  the  Northern  statesmen 
were  not  going  into  the  war  with  an  unmixed 
motive;  as  if  any  state  ever  yet  went  to  war  with 
one  single  and  undiluted  purpose.  A  good  deal 


896  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF 

was  heard  about  the  manner  in  which  the  colored 
race  were  excluded  from  society  in  New  York  and 
the  Northern  States  generally. 

The  exclusivenesa  was  assuredly  narrow-minded 
and  bad  enough;  but  it  is  one  thing  to  say  a 
colored  man  shall  not  sit  next  us  in  a  theatre  or  a 
church,  that  he  shall  not  go  to  school  with  one's 
son  or  marry  one's  daughter,  and  it  is  quite  another 
thing  to  say  that  we  have  a  right  to  scourge  the 
colored  man  to  death,  to  buy  his  son  for  a  slave, 
and  sell  his  daughter  at  the  auction-block. 

Not  a  few  Englishmen  condemned,  boldly  and 
out  of  hand,  the  whole  principle  of  coercion  iu 
political  affairs.  They  declared  that  the  North  had 
no  right  to  put  down  secession;  that  the  South  had 
a  right  to  secede.  Yet  the  same  men  had  upheld 
the  heaven-appointed  right  of  England  to  put 
down  the  rebellion  in  India,  and  would  have 
drenched,  if  need  were,  Ireland  in  blood  rather 
than  allow  her  to  withdraw  from  a  partnership  into 
which,  after  all,  unlike  the  Southern  States,  she  had 
never  voluntarily  entered. 

It  is  important,  for  the  fair  understanding  and 
appreciation  of  the  events  that  followed,  to  remem- 
ber that  there  was,  among  all  the  advocates  of  the 
South  in  England,  a  very  general  conviction  that 
the  North  was  sure  to  be  defeated  and  broken  up, 
and  was  therefore  in  no  sense  a  formidable  power. 
It  is  well  also  to  bear  in  mind  that  there  were  only 
two  European  states  which  entertained  this  feeling 
and  allowed  it  to  be  everywhere  understood.  The 
ochenie  found  support  only  in  England 


POPTTLAK   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  897 

and  in  France.  In  all  other  European  countries  the 
sympathy  of  people  and  Government  alike  went 
with  the  North.  In  most  places  the  sympathy  arose 
from  a  detestation  of  slavery.  In  Russia,  or  at 
least  with  the  Russian  Government,  it  arose  from  a 
dislike  of  rebellion.  But  the  effect  was  the  same  : 
that  assurances  of  friendship  came  from  all  civilized 
countries  to  the  Northern  States  except  from  Eng- 
land and  France  alone.  One  of  the  latest  instruc- 
tions given  by  Cavour  on  his  deathbed,  was  that  an 
assurance  should  be  sent  to  the  Federal  Government 
that  Italy  could  give  its  sympathies  to  no  move- 
ment which  tended  to  the  perpetuation  of  slavery. 
The  Pope,  Pius  IX.,  and  Cardinal  Antonelli  repeat- 
edly expressed  their  hopes  for  the  success  of  the 
Northern  cause.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Emperor 
of  the  French  fully  believed  that  the  Southern 
cause  was  sure  to  triumph,  and  that  the  Union 
would  be  broken  up;  he  was  even  very  willing  to 
hasten  what  he  assumed  to  be  the  unavoidable  end. 
He  was  anxious  that  England  should  join  with  him 
in  some  measures  to  facilitate  the  success  of  the 
South  by  recognizing  the  Government  of  the  South- 
ern Confederation.  He  got  up  the  Mexican  inter- 
vention, of  which  we  shall  have  occasion  presently 
to  speak,  and  which  assuredly  he  would  never  have 
attempted  if  he  had  not  been  persuaded  that  the 
Union  was  on  the  eve  of  disruption.  He  was  not 
without  warning.  Many  eminent  Frenchmen  well 
acquainted  with  America  urged  on  him  the  necessity 
of  caution.  His  cousin,  Prince  Napoleon,  went 
over  to  America  and  surveyed  the  condition  of 


898  K)PULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

affairs  from  both  points  of  view,  talked  with  the 
leaders  of  both  sides,  visited  both  camps,  and  came 
back  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  the  South- 
ern movement  for  independence  would  be  a  failure. 
The  Emperor  Napoleon,  however,  held  to  his  own 
views  and  his  own  schemes.  He  had  afterward 
reason  to  curse  the  day  when  he  reckoned  on  the 
break-up  of  the  Union  and  persuaded  himself  that 
there  was  no  occasion  to  take  account  of  the  North- 
ern strength.  Yet  in  France  the  French  people  in 
general  were  on  the  side  of  the  North.  Only  the 
Emperor  and  his  Government  were  on  that  of  the 
South.  In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  the  vast 
majority  of  what  are  called  the  influential  classes 
canJ§  to  be  heart  and  soul  with  the  South. 

The  death  of  Prince  Albert,  or  as  he  was  called 
in  court  circles,  the  Prince  Consort,  which  occurred 
about  midnight,  December  14th,  1861,  removed  one 
whose  conservative  counsel  was  in  favor  of  a  non- 
intervention policy. 

After  the  dispute  about  the  Trent,  the  feeling 
between  England  and  the  United  States  became 
one  of  distrust,  and  almost  of  hostility.  We  can- 
not help  thinking  that  the  manner  in  which  the 
English  Government  managed  the  dispute,  the 
superfluous  display  of  force,  like  a  pistol  thrust  at 
the  head  of  a  disputant  whom  mere  argument  is 
already  bringing  to  reason,  had  a  great  deal  to  do 
with  the  growth  of  this  bitter  feeling.  The  contro- 
versy about  the  Trent  was  hardly  over  when  Lord 
John  Russell  and  Mr.  Adams  were  engaged  in  the 
more  prolonged  and  far  more  serious  controversy 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  899 

about  the  Confederate  privateers.  The  ad- 
ventures of  the  Confederate  cruisers  began 
with  the  escape  of  a  small  schooner,  the  Savannah, 
from  Charleston,  in  June,  1861.  It  scoured  the  seas 
for  a  while  as  a  privateer,  and  did  some 
damage  to  the  shipping  of  the  Northern  States. 
The  Sumter  had  a  more  memorable  career.  She  was 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Semmes,  who  after- 
ward became  famous,  and  during  her  time  she  did 
Borne  damage.  The  Nashville  and  the  Petrel  were 
also  well  known  for  a  while.  These  were,  however, 
but  small  vessels,  and  each  had  only  a  short  run  of 
it.  The  first  privateer  which  became  really  formid- 
able to  the  shipping  of  the  North  was  a  vessel 
called  in  her  earlier  history  the  Oreto,  but  after- 
ward better  known  as  the  Florida.  Within  three 
months  she  had  captured  fifteen  vessels.  Thirteen 
of  these  she  burned,  and  the  other  two  were  con- 
verted into  cruisers  by  the  Confederate  Government. 
The  Florida  was  built  in  Birkenhead,  nominally  for 
the  use  of  the  Italian  Government.  She  got  out  of 
the  Mersey  without  detention  or  difficulty,  although 
the  American  Minister  had  warned  the  English 
Government  of  her  real  purpose.  From  that  time 
Great  Britain  became  what  an  American  writer  calls 
without  any  exaggeration  "  the  naval  base  of  the 
Confederacy."  As  fast  as  ship-builders  could  work, 
they  were  preparing  in  British  shipping  yards  a 
privateer  navy  for  the  Confederate  Government. 
Mr.  Gladstone  said  in  a  speech,  which  was  the  sub- 
ject of  much  comment,  that  Jefferson  Davis  had 
made  a  navy.  The  statement  was  at  all  events  not 


$00  FOPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

literally  correct  The  English  ship-builders  made 
the  navy.  Mr.  Davis  only  ordered  it  and  paid  for  it 
But  seven  Confederate  privateers  were  really  for- 
midable to  the  United  States,  and  of  these,  five  were 
built  in  British  dock-yards.  We  are  not  including 
in  the  list  any  of  the  actual  war-vessels,  the  rama 
and  ironclads,  that  British  energy  had  built  for  the 
Confederate  Government. 

Of  these  privateers,  the  most  famous  by  far  was  the 
Alabama.  It  was  the  fortune  of  this  vessel  to  be  the 
occasion  of  the  establishment  of  a  new  rule  in  the 
law  of  nations.  It  had  nearly  been  her  fortune  to 
bring  England  and  the  United  States  into  war.  The 
Alabama  was  built  expressly  for  the  Confederate 
service  in  one  of  the  dock-yards  of  the  Mersey. 
She  was  built  by  the  house  of  Laird,  a  firm  of  the 
greatest  reputation  in  the  ship-building  trade,  and 
whose  former  head  was  the  representative  of  Birken- 
head  in  the  House  of  Commons.  While  in  process 
of  construction  she  was  called  the  "290";  and  it 
was  not  until  she  had  put  to  sea  and  hoisted  the 
Confederate  flag,  and  Captain  Semmes,  formerly 
commander  of  the  Sumier,  had  appeared  on  her 
deck  in  full  Confederate  uniform,  that  she  took  the 
name  of  the  Alabama.  During  her  career  the  Ala- 
bama  captured  nearly  seventy  Northern  vessels. 
Her  plan  was  always  the  same.  She  hoisted  the 
British  flag,  and  thus  decoyed  her  intended  victim 
within  her  reach ;  then  she  displayed  the  Confeder- 
ate colors  and  captured  her  prize.  Unless  when 
there  was  some  particular  motive  for  making  use  of 
the  captured  vessels,  they  were  burned.  Sometime* 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OP  IRELAND.  901 

the  blazing  wreck  became  the  means  of  decoying  a 
new  victim.  Some  American  captain  saw  far  off  in 
the  night  the  flames  of  a  burning  vessel  reddening 
the  sea.  He  steered  to  her  aid,  and  when  he  came 
near  enough,  the  Alabama,  which  was  yet  in  the 
same  waters  and  had  watched  his  coming,  fired  her 
shot  across  his  bows,  hung  out  her  flag,  and  made 
him  her  prisoner.  One  American  captain  bitterly 
complained  that  the  fire,  which,  seen  across  the 
waves  at  any  other  time,  became  a  summons  to 
every  seaman  to  hasten  to  the  rescue,  must  thence- 
forward be  a  signal  to  him  to  hold  his  course  and 
keep  away  from  the  blazing  ship.  The  Alabama 
and  her  captain  were,  of  course,  much  glorified  in 
England.  But  the  Alabama  did  not  do  much  fight- 
ing ;  she  preyed  on  merchant  vessels  that  could  not 
fight.  She  attacked  where  instant  surrender  must 
be  the  reply  to  her  summons.  Only  twice,  so  far  as 
we  know,  did  she  engage  in  a  fight.  The  first  time 
was  with  the  Hatteras,  a  small  blockading  ship  whose 
broadside  was  so  unequal  to  that  of  the  Alabama 
that  she  sunk  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  The  second 
time  was  with  the  United  States  ship-of-war  Kear- 
sarge,  whose  size  and  armament  were  about  equal 
to  her  own.  The  fight  took  place  off  the  French 
shore,  near  Cherbourg,  and  the  career  of  the  Ala- 
bama was  finished  in  an  hour.  The  Confederate 
rover  was  utterly  shattered,  and  went  down.  Cap- 
tain Semmes  was  saved  by  an  English  steam-yacht, 
and  brought  to  England  to  be  made  a  hero  for  a 
while,  and  then  forgotten.  The  cruise  of  the  Ala- 
bama had  lasted  nearly  two  years.  During  this  time 


902  POFULAB   HISTOBT  OF  IBELAKD. 

ehe  had  contrived  to  drive  American  commerce  from 
the  seas.  Her  later  cruising  days  were  unprofitable, 
for  American  owners  found  it  necessary  to  keep 
their  vessels  in  port. 

We  need  not  follow  any  further  the  Civil  War  in 
America.  The  surrender  of  Lee  and  Johnston,  the 
restoration  of  the  Union,  the  emancipation  of  the 
colored  race,  and  the  assassination  of  President  Lin- 
coln, belong  to  American,  and  not  to  Irish,  history. 
However,  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  say  a  few  words 
relative  to  the  part  the  Irish  took  in  this  terrible 
conflict. 

The  second  regiment  to  leave  New  York  in  re- 
sponse to  the  President's  call  for  the  defense  of  the 
National  Capital  was  Colonel  Corcoran's  Sixty-ninth 
Irish  Regiment,  and  it  was  soon  followed  by 
Heagher's  Zouaves,  and  other  Irish  organizations. 

Though  General  Corcoran  was  under  arrest  at 
the  opening  of  the  war,  for  refusing  to  parade  his 
regiment  in  honor  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  he  at 
once  offered  his  services  in  defense  of  the  Union, 
they  were  immediately  accepted,  and  he  and  his 
gallant  regiment  hastily  left  for  Washington. 

General  Corcoran  was  captured  at  the  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  and  the  three  months  term  of  service 
having  expired,  the  command  returned  to  New  York 

Thomas  Francis  Meagher  was  commissioned  Brig- 
adier General  and  empowered  to  raise  a  brigade. 
In  a  few  weeks  the  Sixty-ninth,  Sixty-third,  and 
Eighty-eighth  Regiments  were  enrolled  and  ready  to 
take  the  field.  These  were  followed  by  several  other 
Irish  organizations  throughout  various  parts  of  the 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  903 

country.  When  Corcoran  was  subsequently  released 
fromLibby  Prison  he  organized  the  Corcoran  Legion, 
which  did  such  signal  service  in  the  Virginia  cam- 
paigns. Besides  independent  organizations  such  as 
the  Ninth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  composed  ex- 
clusively of  Irishmen,  there  was  not  a  command  in 
the  army  but  had  a  large  complement  of  Irish  in  its 
composition.* 

It  is  computed  that  in  the  Federal  armies  alone 
about  two  hundred  thousand  Irishmen  served  from 
the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  to  the  surrender  of  Lee. 
Most  of  these  were  amalgamated  with  various  com- 
mands scattered  from  the  Empire  State  to  sunny 
Florida,  from  Eappahannock's  banks  to  the  Pacific 
Slope. 

On  the  bloody  fields  of  Virginia,  down  amid  the 
cotton-fields  of  Georgia  and  the  swamps  of  the 
Carolinas,  lie  the  bleached  bones  of  thousands  of 
Irish  soldiers  and  chiefs. 

Whether  storming  the  bloody  heights  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  or  checking  the  enemy's  advance  at  Fair 
Oaks  and  Malvern  Hill,  or  making  that  fearful  dash 
at  Antietam,  or  rescuing  the  abandoned  cannon  at 
Chancellorsville,  or  driving  Early  from  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley,  or  planting  the  stars  and  stripes  on 
the  walls  of  Charleston,  Atlanta  or  Savannah,  the 
Irish  soldier  in  the  American  war  has  left  behind 
him  a  reputation  that  the  greatest  detractor  of  his 
race,  even  the  London  Times  itself,  dare  not  call 
into  question. 

•Bee  history  of 'The  Irish  Brigade  and  its  Campaigns,"  by 
Major  D.  P.  Conyngham. 


904  ropULAB  nisTOBi  OF  IBEIAJTD. 

\ 

The  American  war  had  given  great  vitality  to 
Fenianism  both  at  home  and  in  America.  Thousands 
of  young  men  had  entered  the  American  army  actu- 
ated as  much  by  the  desire  to  acquire  a  military 
knowledge  which  they  might  turn  to  practical  ac- 
count against  England  as  by  devotion  to  their 
adopted  country.  These  brave  but  enthusiastic 
soldiers  fed  themselves  with  the  hope  that  when  the 
American  war  was  over  they  had  nothing  to  do  but 
turn  their  arms  against  England.  They  filled  their 
friends  at  home  with  this  notion,  and  therefore 
scarcely  a  young  man  of  spirit  in  Ireland  but  had 
flung  himself  into  the  arms  of  Fenianism. 

The  disaffected  state  of  Ireland  and  the  fear  of  an 
American  invasion  had  haunted  the  last  days  of 
Lord  Palmerston,  and  when  he  died  in  1865,  he  left 
to  his  successor,  Lord  John  Russell,  a  rich  heritage 
of  American  complications  and  Irish  discontent 

Of  all  the  organized  efforts  of  the  Irish  people  to 
break  the  British  yoke  and  raise  Ireland  to  the  po- 
sition of  a  nation,  that  of  Fenianism  was  the  most 
formidable  of  modern  timea  This  vast  confedera- 
tion of  the  Irish  race,  as  it  may  justly  be  termed, 
succeeded  for  a  time  in  uniting  under  its  standard 
nearly  all  the  organizations  and  societies  which  ex- 
isted throughout  the  United  Kingdom  for  revolu- 
tionary purposes.  Fenianism  may  be  said  to  have 
sprung  into  life,  when,  in  1858,  James  Stephens 
gathered  up  the  shattered  remnants  of  the  Phoenix 
Society  and  brought  the  leading  spirits  of  the  move- 
ment under  his  control  The  organization  over 
which  Mr.  Stephens  presided  at  this  time  was 


POPULAR  HISTORY  0V  IBELAND.   1  905 

known  as  the  "Irish  Eevolutionary  Brotherhood," 
and  it  was  not  until  some  three  years  later  that  the 
title  of  "Fenians"  was  given  to  it  by  John  O'Ma- 
hony,  on  account  of  his  Gaelic  traditions,  for  this 
was  the  name  of  the  Irish  national  militia  which 
flourished  in  the  second  century. 

In  1863  a  convention  of  representatives  from  all 
branches  of  the  organization,  both  in  Ireland  ar«d 
the  United  States,  was  held  in  Chicago,  on  which 
occasion  the  work  to  be  done  by  the  branches  in 
America  and  Ireland  was  mapped  out  for  them. 
The  Fenians  in  America  were  to  aid  the  men  in 
Ireland  with  money,  arms  and  munitions  of  war, 
and  were  also  to  supply  them  with  trained  officers 
and  men  when  the  contemplated  rising  was  about 
taking  place.  Accordingly  the  work  went  steadily 
on  until  the  close  of  the  American  war  gave  a  fresh 
and  powerful  impetus  to  the  movement,  and  appa- 
rently presented  to  Irishmen  the  grand  opportunity 
for  which  they  had  so  long  patiently  waited.  The 
feeling  against  England  on  account  of  the  part  she 
had  taken  in  favor  of  the  South,  in  supplying  her  with 
men,  arms,  ammunition  and  privateers,  was  so 
strong,  that  a  war  between  the  two  powers  seemed 
imminent.  Even  President  Johnson,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded President  Lincoln  after  the  lamentable  as- 
sassination of  the  latter,  gave  color  to  the  rumor  in 
an  interview  a  delegation  of  Irish-American  officers 
and  Fenians  had  with  him. 

As  soon  as  the  Irish-American  officers  were  mus- 
tered out  of  service,  some  hundreds  of  them  lost  no 
time  in  going  to  Ireland  and  placing  themselves 


906  JOFULAB   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

under  the  control  of  the  0.  O.  L  B.,  as  the  council 
of  the  Irish  Republic  was  called.  Their  presence 
soon  became  known,  and  set  the  secret  machinery  of 
the  Government  at  work.  Accordingly  a  privy  coun- 
cil was  held  at  the  Castle,  and  on  that  night,  Sep- 
tember 15th,  1865,  the  Irish  People  newspaper  was 
seized,  and  with  it  O'Donovan  Eossa,  Thomas  Clark 
Luby,  John  O'Leary,  William  Roantree,  and  others. 
Stephens  had  escaped  so  far.  That  there  was  an 
informer  among  them  was  too  evident.  A  few  days 
later,  when  the  prisoners  were  placed  in  the  dock, 
their  tried  and  trusted  associate,  the  man  who  was 
to  swear  away  their  lives,  Pierce  Nagle,  stood  in  the 
witness  stand.  Of  course  the  prisoners  were  con- 
victed. There  could  be  no  hope  before  an  English 
judge,  a  packed  jury,  and  an  Irish  informer.  O'Don- 
ovan Rossa  was  sentenced  for  life  ;  O'Leary  and 
Luby,  twenty  years  each ;  Roantree  and  others,  from 
ten  to  fifteen  years  each.  Mr.  George  Hopper, 
brother-in-law  of  James  Stephens,  pleaded  guilty 
and  was  let  off  with  two  years'  confinement 

A  military  council  was  held,  at  which  the  Irish- 
American  officers  insisted  on  immediate  action,  but 
in  this  they  were  overruled  by  Mr.  Stephens.  The 
result  of  the  conference  was  to  put  off  the  rising  for 
three  months  longer. 

After  this,  mistrust  seized  the  minds  of  some  of 
Stephens's  best  followers  ;  for  the  fact  that  the  most 
prominent  men  were  picked  up  by  the  authorities, 
day  after  day,  convinced  them  that  treason  lurked 
in  their  midst,  and  that  there  was  another  informer 
among  them. 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OP  IRELAND.  907 

On  Saturday  morning,  November  llth,  1865, 
James  Stephens  was  arrested  at  his  residence,  Fair- 
field  House,  at  Sandymount,  where  he  resided  under 
the  name  of  Herbert.  With  him  were  also  arrested 
Charles  J.  Kickham,  Hugh  Brophy  and  Edward 
Duffy. 

This  coup  d'etat,  it  was  surmised  by  the  Crown 
authorities,  would  end  the  struggle.  Their  surmises 
were  doomed  to  disappointment.  Steps  were  taken 
to  effect  Mr.  Stephens's  release  from  Richmond 
Bridewell,  in  which  he  was  immured,  which  was  ac- 
complished mainly  through  the  agency  of  Daniel 
Byrne,  a  warden  in  the  prison,  and  now  a  member  of 
the  New  York  police  force.  On  the  night  of  the 
24th  of  November  the  plan  was  put  into  execution, 
and  on  the  following  day  the  country  was  startled 
with  the  announcement  that  Stephens  had  escaped. 

Stephens,  before  leaving  prison,  pledged  himself 
that  the  year  should  not  pass  over  without  the  rising 
taking  place,  but  outside  its  walls  more  cautious 
counsels  prevailed,  and  he  threw  all  possible  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  the  contemplated  outbreak. 

In  not  striking  at  the  time  suggested  the  Fenians 
made  their  great  mistake,  for  there  is  no  doubt  but 
the  army  and  constabulary  were  largely  disaffected ; 
hundreds  of  trained  Irish-American  officers  were  in 
the  country;  and  so  strong  was  the  feeling  in  Amer- 
ica against  England,  that  an  outbreak  in  Ireland 
could  not  fail  to  precipitate  an  armed  conflict  be- 
tween the  two  nations.  America  was  irritated  by 
the  part  which  England  took  doling  the  Civil  War. 
On  every  battle-field  of  the  South  was  found  beside 


908  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IBELAND. 

a  fallen  Confederate,  a  rifle,  a  sabre  or  a  revolver 
stamped  with  the  British  crown.  Eebel  ship^  were 
built  and  manned  and  armed  by  Englishmen  to  de- 
stroy American  commerce.  The  crews  of  these 
ships — who  had  been  adjudged  pirates  according  to 
all  the  usages  of  international  law — were  disbanded 
in  English  ports  in  defiance  of  the  official  protest  of 
the  United  States  Minister,  and  not  only  allowed  to 
go  free,  but  were  also  honored  and  feted.  British 
emissaries  had  invaded  American  territory,  robbed 
American  banks  and  murdered  American  citizens. 
It  was  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  disbanded  sol- 
diers burned  to  wipe  out  the  stain;  but  diplomacy 
and  policy  bridged  over  the  unpleasantness,  and 
America  to-day  obsequiously  pays  homage  to 
'•  Mother  England." 

The  year  1865,  on  which  the  rising  was  to  take  place, 
had  passed,  and  nearly  two  months  of  '66,  yet  Mr. 
Stephens  managed  to  defer  it.  The  American  officers, 
growing  impatient  of  this  delay,  called  a  military 
council,  which  met  on  the  night  of  February  16th.  No 
definite  conclusion  was  arrived  at,  but  before  noon 
next  day  every  Irish-American  officer  in  Dublin,  to 
the  number  of  over  two  hundred,  found  himself  an 
inmate  of  Kilmainham  Jail. 

Though  the  arrests  were  made  under  the  sus- 
pension of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  it  was  not  until 
the  following  day  (Sunday)  that  it  had  become  law. 
But  when  did  England  observe  or  regard  law  in  her 
dealings  with  Ireland  ? 

Meanwhile  these  wholesale  arrests  continued  until 
the  prisons  of  Ireland  were  filled  with  "  suspects." 


POHJLAB   mSTOET  Off  lEELAUD.  909 

The  minions  of  the  Castle  were  now  in  their  glory. 
They  had  in  their  power  a  class  of  men  whom  they 
feared,  and  whom  they  delighted  to  insult  and  per- 
secute. 

A  short  time  after  these  February  arrests,  Mr. 
Stephens,  who  had  been  concealed  in  the  house  of  a 
Mrs.  Butler,  Summer  Hill,  Dublin,  took  his  departure 
for  France,  from  where,  after  two  months,  he  sailed 
for  the  United  States.  Thus  vanished  from  the 
scene  of  Irish  revolutionary  politics  the  "Central 
Organizer  of  the  Irish  Republic."  A  man,  it  is  true, 
who  had  built  up  the  most  powerful  organization 
for  military  purposes  that  ever  existed  in  Ireland, 
but  a  man  nevertheless  who  contributed  more  than 
all  others  to  neutralize  the  very  power  he  had 
created. 

James  Stephens  was  an  organizer  and  a  natural- 
born  conspirator ;  had  he  been  a  patriot  as  well, 
whose  actions  were  controlled  by  love  of  country 
and  not  egotistical  vanity,  he  would  have  stepped 
aside  when  his  work  of  organization  was  done,  and 
permitted  other  heads  and  other  hands  to  guide  the 
powerful  machinery  which  he  had  constructed,  and 
which  he  lacked  moral  courage  enough  to  put  in 
active  motion. 

Every  day  the  Fenian  trials  went  on  before  Judge 
Keogh  and  a  packed  jury,  and  of  course  to  be 
brought  before  such  a  tribunal  was  equivalent  to 
conviction.  A  considerable  amount  of  correspond- 
ence took  place  between  the  American  officers  in 
prison  and  Mr.  Adams,  the  American  Minister  in 
London,  and  Mr.  West,  the  American  Consul  in 


910  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

Dublin,  with  a  view  of  influencing  the  American 
Government  to  claim  the  right  of  trial  or  liberation 
for  American  citizens.  These  gentlemen  seemed  to 
favor  England's  claim — "once  a  subject,  a  subject 
for  ever" — so  that  the  suspects,  though  some  of  them 
had  been  in  America  since  childhood  and  had  served 
all  through  the  American  war,  were  still  treated  by 
England  as  her  subjects,  though  disloyal  and  dis- 
obedient ones. 

Mr.  Seward,  then  Secretary  of  State,  took  a  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  matter,  and  as  America  was  in  no 
humor  to  be  trifled  with  at  the  time,  the  release  of 
the  Irish-American  prisoners  was  insisted  upon  and 
finally  granted. 

In  the  meantime  the  Fenian  organization  in 
America  was  disorganized  by  divided  councils,  and 
the  Fenian  Senate  had  deposed  CoL  John  O'Mahony 
and  elected  William  B.  Roberts  in  his  place,  so  that 
in  America  there  were  two  organizations  with  two 
presidents  at  their  head.  The  Roberts  party  de- 
cided on  an  invasion  of  Canada,  and  in  May,  1866, 
an  effort  was  made  in  that  direction.  On  June  2d 
the  handful  of  Irish  under  General  O'Neill,  who  had 
crossed  the  border,  met  the  Canadian  forces,  com- 
posing the  "  Queen's  Own  "  and  a  spirited  encounter 
took  place  which  resulted  in  the  rout  of  the  British. 
On  the  7th  of  June  a  proclamation  was  issued  by 
President  Johnson  against  the  Fenian  invasion  of 
Canada,  and  troops  having  been  sent  to  the  borders, 
the  whole  movement  soon  collapsed.  The  O'Mahony 
party  made  a  ridiculous  movement  about  the  same 
time  on  Canada,  by  seizing  on  an  island  called 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  911 

Campo-Calla,  but  the  fiasco  soon  fizzled  out. 
About  this  time  James  Stephens  arrived  in  New 
York,  and  at  a  monster  meeting  held  in  Jones'  Wood 
he  again  pledged  himself  to  immediate  action  in 
Ireland.  Many  retired  from  the  movement  in  dis- 
gust. Stephens  had  been  deposed  and  Col.  Thomas 
J.  Kelly  filled  his  place.  The  following  November 
Col.  Kelly  sailed  for  Ireland  on  the  forlorn  hope 
of  preparing  the  way  for  an  outbreak.  On  his  ar- 
rival there  a  secret  council  was  held,  and  the  12th 
of  February,  1867,  was  set  down  for  the  rising.  In 
the  meantime  a  daring  attempt  was  made  to  seize 
Chester  Castle,  England,  which  would  have  suc- 
ceeded only  for  the  treachery  of  the  informer  Cory- 
don,  who  imposed  himself  on  Stephens  as  an  officer 
of  the  Irish  Brigade  and  seemed  to  gain  his  entire 
confidence.  This  notorious  informer  had  never 
risen  higher  than  private  in  the  Brigade,  was  hos- 
pital steward  to  Dr.  Reynolds,  and  at  one  time  servant 
to  the  writer. 

The  rising,  which  was  adjourned  from  the  12th  of 
February  to  the  6th  of  March,  was  now  crushed  out. 
The  fact  is,  the  people  found  themselves  without 
competent  heads  or  leaders ;  the  Government  being 
fully  aware  of  their  movements  through  the  agency 
of  their  spies  and  informers,  was  everywhere  pre- 
pared to  receive  them,  and  the  whole  affair  subsided 
after  a  few  sharp  conflicts  between  the  police  and 
the  people. 

The  so-called  rising  of  1867  was  Utopian  in  con- 
ception and  without  head  or  leaders  to  bring  it  to  a 
successful  execution.  Though  it  filled  the  English 


912  POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

dungeons  with  more  suspects  and  Fenians,  it  showed 
one  thing,  namely,  that  the  people  of  Ireland,  pro- 
perly organized  and  led,  will  fight  desperately  foi  their 
independence.  The  news  of  the  uprising  in  Ireland 
caused  the  greatest  excitement  in  America,  and  a 
small  vessel  called  the  Jackmel,  but  which  was  sub- 
sequently christened  Erin's  Hope,  was  fitted  out  to 
convey  men  and  arms  to  Ireland.  This  vessel 
landed  on  the  Irish  shore  some  thirty  officers,  who 
were  soon  enjoying  the  hospitalities  of  Kilmainham. 

This  might  be  said  to  be  the  end  of  the  long- 
threatened  rising,  but  though  a  failure,  it  has  sown 
such  a  crop  of  disaffection  and  self-reliance  as  to 
compel  England's  rule  in  Ireland  to  depend  on  bay- 
onets and  military  garrisons. 

The  saddest  record  of  this  ill-timed  rising  was  the 
execution  of  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien,  commonly 
called  the  Manchester  Martyrs.  Col.  Thos.  Kelly, 
in  company  with  Captain  Deasy,  was  arrested  in 
Manchester  the  following  September.  In  an  at- 
tempt to  rescue  them  a  policeman  named  Brett  was 
shot  and  killed. 

A  special  commission  was  convened  to  try  the 
men  arrested,  namely,  William  Allen,  Michael  Lar- 
kin, Michael  O'Brien,  Thomas  Maguire  and  Edward 
Condon.  The  men  were  all  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  be  hanged,  on  the  evidence  of  vile  informers. 
Though  it  was  evident  that  Brett  was  shot  accident- 
ally and  that  none  of  the  prisoners  fired  the  shot, 
still  a  sacrifice  should  be  made  to  appease  English 
thirst  for  Irish  blood,  and  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien 
were  executed  on  the  23rd  of  November.  Maguire 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  913 

was  pardoned  and  Condon  was  reprieved,  though 
there  was  no  evidence  to  show  that  they  were  more 
or  less  guilty  of  the  crime  than  the  men  who  were 
executed.  The  prisoners,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
trial,  as  well  as  on  the  fatal  drop,  all  declared  their 
innocence.  As  sentence  was  about  being  passed 
upon  tnem,  one  of  the  prisoners  said:  "You  will 
soon  send  us  before  God,  and  I  am  perfectly  pre- 
pared to  go.  I  have  nothing  to  regret,  or  to  retract,  or 
to  take  back.  I  can  only  say,  "  GOD  SAVE  IRELAND." 
Stepping  to  the  front  of  the  dock,  with  their  hands 
and  eyes  raised  with  solemn  earnestness  to  heaven, 
these  five  noble  patriots  and  martyrs,  in  a  loud,  firm 
voice  repeated,  "GOD  SAVE  IRELAND  I" 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IRELAND'S  FIRST  CARDINAL. — DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  THK 
IRISH  CHURCH. — THE  HOME  RULE  AGITATION. — 
GLADSTONE  AS  A  REFORMER. -—THE  IRISH  LAND 
BILL  OF  1870. — THE  FRENCH  WAR  AND  DETHRONE- 
MENT OF  THE  EMPEROR. 

The  elevation  of  the  Most  Reverend  Paul  Cullen 
from  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin  to  the  Cardinalate, 
which  took  place  in  1866,  was  a  source  of  much  re- 
joicing to  the  clergy  of  Ireland  as  well  as  to  a  large 
portion  of  their  congregations.  England  had  been 
honored  by  His  Holiness  Pius  IX.  with  a  special 
mark  of  his  favor,  by  elevating  the  Most  Rev.  Dr. 
Wiseman,  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  to  the 
Cardinalate  in  1850.  The  faithful  of  Ireland  justly 


914  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

thought  that  after  centuries  of  persecution  of  th« 
Church  in  that  country,  they  should  not  beugnored ; 
therefore  the  press  and  people  earnestly  pressed  the 
consideration  of  raising  Archbishop  Cullen  to  the 
dignity  of  Cardinal,  which  the  Pope  finally  consented 
to  do.  To  the  National  element  in  Ireland  Dr.  Cullen's 
elevation  was  anything  but  pleasing.  He  had  given  a 
strong  opposition  to  the  Fenian  movement,  and  this 
rendered  him  unpopular  with  the  extremists,  who 
bitterly  denounced  him  as  a  "  Castle-hack." 

The  truth  is,  though  Cardinal  Cullen  was  a  man 
of  liberal  and  patriotic  views,  he  considered  that  he 
was  in  duty  bound  to  oppose  a  movement  which  he 
believed  was  the  offspring  of  secret  societies,  and 
which,  in  his  opinion,  should  end  in  failure.  What- 
ever difference  of  opinion  there  may  be  regarding 
his  political  views  and  actions,  there  can  be  but  one 
regarding  him  as  an  ecclesiastic,  namely,  that  he 
•was  a  zealous,  charitable,  and  in  every  sense  an  ex- 
emplary churchman.  Since  his  translation  from  the 
Archbishopric  of  Armagh,  which  he  had  filled  for 
three  years,  to  that  of  Dublin,  in  1852,  and  up  until 
the  time  of  his  death,  on  the  24th  of  October,  1878, 
his  labors  on  behalf  of  the  Church  in  Ireland,  over 
which  he  presided,  were  crowned  with  success  and 
blessed  with  the  most  salutary  fruits. 

In  1868,  Lord  Derby,  who  had  retired  from  the 
Ministry,  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Disraeli  as  Prime 
Minister.  A  liberal  and  enlightened  policy  was  ex- 
pected from  the  new  administration,  but  so  far  as 
Ireland  was  concerned,  the  change  of  Ministry  sim- 
ply meant  a  change  of  masters.  The  duplicity  ol 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  915 

Disraeli's  policy  was  fully  a  verification  of  what  he 
meant  in  Vivian  Grey,  when  he  declared  that,  for 
statesmen  who  would  rule,  "  wisdom  must  be  con- 
cealed under  folly,  and  constancy  under  caprice." 

Few  changes  were  made  in  the  Cabinet,  and  few 
bills  of  importance  were  introduced  in  the  early 
part  of  Disraeli's  administration.  A  bill  was  passed 
putting  a  stop  to  public  executions,  and  the  Govern- 
ment ventured  on  the  step  of  acquiring  possession 
of  all  the  lines  of  telegraph,  and  making  the  control 
of  communication  by  wire  a  part  of  the  business  of 
the  Post  Office.  The  Abyssinian  war  took  place 
about  this  time,  which  terminated  by  the  capture  of 
Magdala  and  the  death  of  King  Theodore,  who,  in 
despair  and  in  true  Koman  fashion,  died  by  his  own 
hand.  { 

In  the  year  1868  a  new  element  was  introduced 
into  Irish  politics,  or  it  might  with  more  propriety 
be  said  that  an  old  grievance  was  revived :  we  al- 
lude to  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church. 
Denis  F.  McCarthy  happily  says  :  "  The  Irish  Peas- 
ant to  his  Mistress  "  is  the  name  of  one  of  Moore's 
finest  songs.  The  Irish  peasant  tells  his  mistress  of 
his  undying  fidelity  to  her.  "Through  grief  and 
through  danger"  her  smile  has  cheered  his  way. 
"  The  darker  our  fortunes  the  purer  thy  bright  love 
burned ;"  it  turned  shame  into  glory;  fear  into  zeaL 
Slave  as  he  was,  with  her  to  guide  him  he  felt  free. 
She  had  a  rival ;  and  the  rival  was  honored,  "while 
thou  wert  mocked  and  scorned."  The  rival  wore  a 
crown  of  gold ;  the  other's  brows  were  girt  with 
thorns*  The  rival  wooed  him  to  temples,  while  the 


916  fcOPULAB  HISTOBT   OF  IRELAND. 

loved  one  lay  hid  in  caves.  "  Her  friends  were  aH 
masters,  while  thine,  alas,  are  slaves ! "  "  Yet,"  he 
declares,  "cold  in  the  earth  at  thy  feet  I  would 
rather  be  than  wed  one  I  love  not,  or  turn  one 
thought  from  thee." 

The  reader  already  understands  the  meaning  of 
this  poetic  allegory.  If  he  failed  to  appreciate  its 
feeling  it  would  be  hardly  possible  for  him  to  under- 
stand the  modern  history  of  Ireland.  The  Irish 
peasant's  mistress  is  the  Catholic  Church.  The  rival 
is  the  State  Church,  set  up  by  English  authority. 
The  worshipers  in  the  Catholic  faith  had  long  to 
lie  hid  in  caves,  while  the  followers  of  the  State 
Church  worshiped  hi  temples.  The  Irish  peasant 
remained  through  centuries  of  persecution  devotedly 
faithful  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Nothing  could  win 
or  wean  him  from  it.  The  Irish  population  of  Ire- 
land were  made  apparently  by  nature  for  the  Cath- 
olic faith.  Hardly  any  influence  on  earth  could 
make  the  genuine  Celtic  Irishman  a  Materialist,  or 
what  is  called  in  France  a  Voltairean.  Half  his 
thoughts,  half  his  life,  belong  to  a  world  other  than 
the  material  world  around  him.  The  supernatural 
becomes  almost  the  natui'al  for  him.  The  streams, 
the  valleys,  the  hills  of  his  native  country  are  peo- 
pled by  mystic  forms  and  melancholy  legends,  which 
are  all  but  living  things  for  him.  Even  the  railway 
has  not  banished  from  the  land  his  familiar  fancies 
and  dreams.  The  "  good  people  "  still  linger  around 
the  raths  and  glens.  The  banshee  even  yet  laments, 
in  dirge-like  wailings,  the  death  of  the  representa- 
tive of  each  ancient  house.  The  very  superstitions 


POPULAR   HISTOBY  OF  IRELAND.  917 

of  the  Irish  peasant  take  a  devotional  form.  They 
are  never  degrading.  His  piety  is  not  merely  sin- 
cere, it  is  even  practical.  It  sustains  him  against 
many  hard  trials,  and  enables  him  to  bear,  in  cheer- 
ful patience,  a  lifelong  trouble.  He  praises  God  for 
everything,  not  as  an  act  of  mere  devotional  formality, 
but  as  by  instinct,  the  praise  naturally  rising  to  his 
lips.  Old  men  and  women  in  Ireland,  who  seem  to 
the  observer  to  have  lived  lives  of  nothing  but  pri- 
vation and  suffering,  are  heard  to  murmur  with 
their  latest  breath  the  fervent  declaration  that  the 
Lord  was  good  to  them  always.  Assuredly  this 
genuine  piety  does  not  always  prevent  the  wild  Celtic 
nature  from  breaking  forth  into  fierce  excesses. 
Stormy  outbursts  of  passion,  gusts  of  savage  revenge, 
too  often  sweep  away  the  soul  of  the  Irish  peasant 
from  the  quiet  moorings  in  which  his  natural  piety 
and  the  teachings  of  his  Church  would  hold  it.  But 
deep  down  in  his  nature  is  that  faith  in  the  other 
world  and  its  visible  connection  and  intercourse 
with  this ;  his  reverence  for  the  teaching  which 
shows  him  a  clear  title  to  immortality.  For  this 
very  reason,  when  the  Irish  peasant  throws  off  alto- 
gether the  guidance  of  religion,  he  is  apt  to  rush 
into  worse  extravagances  and  excesses  than  most 
other  men.  He  is  not  made  to  be  a  rationalist ;  he 
is  made  to  be  a  believer. 

The  Irishman  was  bound  by  ties  of  indescribable 
strength  and  complication  to  his  own  Church.  It 
was  the  teacher  of  that  faith  which  especially  com- 
mended itself  to  his  nature  and  bis  temperament 
It  was  made  to  be  the  symbol  and  the  synonym  oi 


918  POPULAR   HISTORY   Or   IRELAND. 

patriotism  and  nationality.  Centuries  of  the  cruel, 
futile  attempt  to  force  another  religion  on  him  in 
the  name  of  his  English  conquerors  had  made  him 
regard  any  effort  to  change  his  faith,  even  by  argu- 
ment, as  the  attempt  of  a  spy  to  persuade  a  soldier 
to  forsake  his  flag.  To  abandon  the  Catholic  Church 
was,  for  him,  not  merely  to  renounce  his  religion, 
but  to  betray  his  country.  It  seemed  to  him  that 
he  could  not  become  a  Protestant  without  also  be- 
coming a  renegade  to  the  National  cause.  The  State 
Church  set  up  in  Ireland  was  to  him  a  symbol  of 
oppression.  It  was  Gessler's  hat  stuck  up  in  the 
market-place ;  only  a  slave  would  bow  down  to  it. 
It  was  idle  to  tell  him  of  the  free  spirit  of  Protest- 
antism ;  Protestantism  stood  represented  for  him 
by  the  authority  which  had  oppressed  his  fellow- 
countrymen  and  fellow-Catholics  for  generations ; 
which  had  hunted  men  to  the  caves  and  the  moun- 
tains for  being  Catholic,  and  had  hanged  and  disem- 
boweled them  for  being  Irish.  Almost  every  page 
of  the  history  of  the  two  countries  was  read  with  a 
different  interpretation  by  the  Irishman  and  the 
Englishman.  To  the  English  student  Spenser  was 
a  patriot  as  well  as  a  poet ;  to  the  Irish  scholar  he 
was  the  bitterest  and  most  unthinking  enemy  of 
Ireland.  To  the  Englishman  of  modern  days  Crom- 
well was  a  great  statesman  and  patriot ;  the  Irish- 
man thought  of  him  only  as  the  remorseless  op- 
pressor of  Ireland  and  the  author  of  the  massacre  of 
Drogheda.  The  Englishman  hated  James  II.  be- 
cause he  fought  against  England  at  the  Boyne  ;  the 
Irishman  despised  him  because  he  gave  up  the  fight 


POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  919 

BO  soon.  Chesterfield  was  to  Englishmen  a  fribble 
and  a  fop  ;  he  was  to  Irishmen  of  education  the  one 
English  Lord-Lieutenant  who  ever  seemed  to  have 
any  comprehension  of  the  real  needs  of  Ireland. 
Fox  was  denounced  in  England  and  adored  in  Ire- 
land, because  he  made  himself  the  champion  of  the 
principle  of  governing  Ireland  according  to  Irish 
ideas.  One  of  Bvron's  chief  offenses  in  the  eyes  of 
English  Conservatives  was  that  his  enthusiasm  for 
Ireland  was  almost  equal  to  his  enthusiasm  for 
Greece.  Again  and  again,  in  every  generation,  the 
object  of  admiration  to  Englishmen  was  the  object 
of  distrust  or  dislike,  or  both,  to  all  Irishmen  who 
professed  to  have  in  them  anything  of  the  sentiment 
of  nationality.  All  this  feeling  of  antagonism 
was  undoubtedly  strengthened  and  sharpened  by 
the  existence  of  the  State  Church.  There  was  not 
one  rational  word  to  be  said  on  principle  for  the 
maintenance  of  such  an  institution.  Sydney  Smith 
said,  in  his  humorous  way:  "There  is  no  abuse  like 
it  in  all  Europe,  in  all  Asia,  in  all  the  discovered 
parts  of  Africa,  and  in  all  we  have  heard  of  Timbuc- 
too."  No  foreign  statesman  probably  ever  admired 
English  institutions  more  than  Count  Cavour  did. 
Yet  Cavour  wrote  that  the  State  Church  in  Ireland 
"remains  to  the  Catholics  a  representative  of  the 
cause  of  their  miseries,  a  sign  of  defeat  and  oppres- 
sion. It  exasperates  their  sufferings,  and  makes 
their  humiliation  more  keenly  felt."  Every  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  State  Church  in  England  was 
an  argument  against  the  State  Church  in  Ireland. 
The  English  Church,  as  an  institution,  is  defended 


§20  POPULAB   HISTORY  OF  IRELAOTX 

on  the  ground  that  it  represents  the  religious  con- 
victions of  the  great  majority  of  the  English  people, 
and  that  it  is  qualified  to  take  welcome  charge  of 
those  who  would  otherwise  be  left  without  any  re- 
ligious care  or  teaching  in  England. 

On  March  16th,  1868,  a  remarkable  debate  took 
place  in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  had  for  its 
subject  the  condition  of  Ireland,  and  it  was  intro- 
duced by  a  series  of  resolutions  which  Mr.  John 
Francis  Maguire,  an  Irish  member,  proposed.  Mr. 
Maguire  was  a  man  of  high  character  and  great 
ability  and  earnestness.  When  therefore  he  invited 
the  attention  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  con- 
dition of  Ireland,  the  house  knew  that  it  was  likely 
to  have  a  fair  and  a  trustworthy  exposition  of  the 
subject.  In  the  course  of  his  speech,  Mr.  Maguire 
laid  great  stress  upon  the  evil  effect  wrought  upon 
Ireland  by  the  existence  of  the  Irish  Church.  He 
described  it  as  "a  scandalous  and  monstrous  anom- 
aly!" During  the  debate  Lord  Mayo,  then  Irish 
Secretary,  made  a  speech  in  which  he  threw  out 
some  hint  about  a  policy  of  equalizing  all  religious 
denominations  in  Ireland  without  sacrificing  the 
Irish  Church.  He  talked  in  a  mysterious  way  of 
"leveling  up,  and  not  leveling  down."  It  has 
never  since  been  known  for  certain  whether  he  was 
giving  a  hint  of  a  scheme  actually  in  the  mind  of 
the  Government ;  whether  he  was  speaking  as  one 
set  up  to  feel  his  way  into  the  opinion  of  the  House 
of  Commons  and  the  public ;  or  whether  he  was 
only  following  out  some  sudden  and  irresponsible 
speculations  of  his  own.  The  words,  however,  pro- 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OP   IRELAND.  921 

Sliced  a  great  effect  on  the  House  of  Commons.  It 
became  evident  at  once  that  the  question  of  the 
Irish  Church  was  making  itself  at  last  a  subject  for 
the  practical  politician.  Mr.  Bright  in  the  course 
of  the  debate  strongly  denounced  the  Irish  Esta- 
blishment, and  enjoined  the  Government  and  all  the 
great  English  parties  to  rise  to  the  occasion  and  re- 
solve to  deal  in  some  serious  way  with  the  condit.i  n 
of  Ireland. 

Mr.  McCarthy  in  his  History  of  our  Times  speak- 
ing of  the  debate  says : 

"Public  expectation  was  not  long  kept  in  sus- 
pense. A  few  days  after  the  debate  on  Mr.  Ma- 
guire's  motion,  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  notice  of  a 
series  of  resolutions  on  the  subject  of  the  Irish  State 
Church.  The  resolutions  were  three  in  number. 
The  first  declared  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  House 
of  Commons  it  was  necessary  that  the  Established 
Church  of  Ireland  should  cease  to  exist  as  an  estab- 
lishment, due  regard  being  had  to  all  personal 
interests  and  to  all  individual  rights  of  property. 
The  second  resolution  pronounced  it  expedient  to 
prevent  the  creation  of  new  personal  interests  by 
the  exercise  of  any  public  patronage  ;  and  the  third 
asked  for  an  address  to  the  Queen,  praying  that 
her  Majesty  would  place  at  the  disposal  of  Parlia- 
ment her  interest  in  the  temporalities  of  the  Irish 
Church.  The  object  of  these  resolutions  was  sim- 
ply to  prepare  for  the  actual  disestablishment  of 
the  Church,  by  providing  that  no  further  appoint- 
ments should  be  made,  and  that  the  action  of  pa- 
tronage should  be  stayed  until  Parliament  should 


922  fOPULAR    HISTORY   OF   1BELAND. 

decide  the  fate  of  the  whole  institution.  On  March 
30th,  1868,  Mr.  Gladstone  proposed  his  resolutions. 
Not  many  persons  could  have  had  much  doubt  as 
to  the  result  of  the  debate.  But  if  there  were  any 
such,  their  doubts  must  have  begun  to  vanish  when 
they  read  the  notice  of  amendment  to  the  resolu- 
tions which  was  given  by  Lord  Stanley.  The 
amendment  proclaimed  even  more  surely  than  the 
resolutions  the  impending  fall  of  the  Irish  Church. 
Lord  Stanley  must  have  been  supposed  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  Government  and  the  Conservative 
party;  and  his  amendment  merely  declared  that 
the  House,  while  admitting  that  considerable  mod- 
ifications in  the  temporalities  of  the  Church  in 
Ireland  might  appear  to  be  expedient,  was  of 
opinion  '  that  any  proposition  tending  to  the  dises- 
tablishment or  disendowment  of  that  Church  ought 
to  be  reserved  for  the  decision  of  the  new  Parlia- 
ment.* Mr.  Gladstone  seized  on  the  evidence 
offered  by  the  terms  of  such  an  amendment.  He 
observed  that  before  the  hour  at  which  notice  was 
given  of  that  amendment  he  had  thought  the 
thread  of  the  remaining  life  of  the  Irish  Established 
Church  was  short,  but  since  the  notice  was  given 
he  thought  it  shorter  still. 

The  debate  was  one  of  great  power  and  interest. 
Some  of  the  speakers  were  heard  at  their  very  best. 
Mr.  Bright  made  a  speech  which  was  well  worthy 
of  the  occasion  and  the  orator.  Mr.  Gathorne 
Hardy  was  in  his  very  element  He  flung  aside  all 
consideration  of  amendment,  compromise,  or  delay, 
and  went  in  for  a  vehement  defense  of  the  Irish 


POPULAR  HISTORf  OF  IRELAND.  923 

Church.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Lowe  threw  an 
intensity  of  bitterness  remarkable  even  for  him 
into  the  unsparing  logic  with  which  he  assailed  the 
Irish  Church.  That  Church,  he  said,  was  '  like  an 
exotic  brought  from  a  far  country,  tended  with  in- 
finite pains  and  useless  trouble.  It  is  kept  alive 
with  the  greatest  difficulty,  and  at  great  expense, 
in  an  ungenial  climate  and  an  ungrateful  soil.  The 
curse  of  barrenness  is  upon  it.  It  has  no  leaves, 
puts  forth  no  blossom,  and  yields  no  fruit.  Cut  it 
down  ;  why  cumbereth  it  the  ground?'  Not  the 
least  remarkable  speech  of  the  debate  was  that 
made  by  Lord  Cranbourne,  who  denounced  the 
Government  of  which  he  was  not  long  since  a 
member  with  an  energy  of  hatred  almost  like 
ferocity.  He  accused  his  late  colleagues  of  having 
in  every  possible  way  betrayed  the  cause  of  Con- 
servatism, and  he  assailed  Mr.  Disraeli  personally 
in  a  manner  which  made  older  members  think  of  the 
days  when  Mr.  Disraeli  was  denouncing  Sir  Robert 
Peel.  No  eloquence  and  no  invective  however 
could  stay  the  movement  begun  by  Mr.  Gladstone. 
When  the  division  was  called  there  were  331  votes 
for  the  resolutions  and  only  270  against  them. 
The  doom  of  the  Irish  Church  was  pronounced  by 
a  majority  of  61.  Mr.  Disraeli  made  a  wild  effort, 
by  speech  and  by  letter,  to  get  up  an  alarm  in  the 
country  on  the  score  of  some  imaginary  alliance  or 
conspiracy  between  'High  Church  Ritualists'  and 
'Irish  Romanists.'  The  attempt  was  a  complete 
failure  ;  there  was  only  a  little  flash  ;  no  explosion 
came. 


FOPULAB  HISTORY  OF  1BELAND. 

"  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  resolution  came  to  a  division 
about  a  month  after  the  defeat  of  Lord  Stanley's 
amendment.  It  was  carried  by  a  majority  some- 
what larger  than  that  which  had  rejected  the 
amendment :  330  votes  were  given  for  the  resolu- 
tion ;  265,  against  it.  The  majority  for  the  resolu- 
tion was  therefore  65.  Mr.  Disraeli  quietly  observed 
that  the  Government  must  take  some  decisive  step 
in  consequence  of  that  vote  ;  and  a  few  days  after- 
ward it  was  announced  that  as  soon  as  the  necessary 
business  could  be  got  through,  Parliament  would 
be  dissolved,  and  an  appeal  made  to  the  country. 
On  the  last  day  of  July  the  dissolution  took  place, 
and  the  elections  came  on  in  November.  Not  for 
many  years  had  there  been  so  important  a  general 
election.  The  keenest  anxiety  prevailed  as  to  its 
results.  The  new  constituencies  created  by  the 
Reform  Bill  were  to  give  their  votes  for  the  first 
time.  The  question  at  issue  was  not  merely  the 
existence  of  the  Irish  State  Church.  It  was  a  <*en- 

O 

eral  struggle  of  advanced  Liberalism  against  Tory- 
ism. No  one  could  doubt  that  Mr.  Gladstone,  if 
lie  came  into  power,  would  enter  on  a  policy  of 
more  decided  Liberalism  than  had  ever  been  put 
into  action  since  the  days  of  the  Reform  Bill  of 
Lord  Grey  and  Lord  John  Russell.  The  result  of 
the  elections  wtia  on  the  whole  what  might  have 
been  expected.  The  Liberals  had  a  great  majority." 
Mr.  Disraeli  did  not  meet  the  new  Parliament  as 
Prime  Minister.  He  at  once  resigned  his  office, 
and  a  new  administration  was  formed,  with  Glad- 
stone at  its  head.  The  disestablishment  bill  wag 


POPULAR  HISTOItf  OF  IRELAND.  925 

soon  introduced  in  the  new  Parliament.  Disraeli 
and  his  supporters  gave  the  measure  a  violent  op- 
position, but  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  House  of 
Lords  by  a  vast  majority.  The  Lords  were  prudent 
enough  not  to  set  themselves  up  in  opposition  to 
the  public  will,  and  the  bill  was  carried  by  179  to 
146  votes,  and  on  the  26th,  of  July,  1869,  the  mea- 
sure for  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church 
received  the  royal  assent. 

Meantime,  as  Mr.  McCarthy  says,  "the  wildest 
excitement  prevailed  out  of  doors  among  the  de- 
fenders of  the  State  Church.  Furious  denuncia- 
tions of  the  Government  resounded  from  platform 
and  from  pulpit.  Even  in  measured  and  solemn 
convocation  itself  the  most  impassioned  and  vehe- 
ment outcries  were  heard.  One  divine  spoke  of 
the  measure  as  a  great  national  sin.  Another  stig- 
matized it  as  altogether  ungodly,  wicked,  and 
abominable.  A  third  called  upon  the  Queen  to 
interfere  personally,  and  exhorted  her  rather  to 
jeopardize  her  crown  in  the  effort  than  leave  the 
Irish  Church  to  be  destroyed  before  her  eyes.  A 
great  meeting  was  held  in  Exeter  Hall,  at  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  stigmatized  as  '  a  traitor  to  his 
Queen,  his  country,  and  his  God,'  and  one  reverend 
gentleman  described  the  Government  as  '  a  cabinet 
of  brigands.'  At  a  meeting  held  in  Ireland,  a  Pro- 
testant clergyman  reminded  the  pastors  of  every 
Protestant  church,  that,  sooner  than  give  their 
churches  up  to  any  apostate  system,  a  barrel  of 
gunpowder  and  a  box  of  matches  would  send  them 
flying  to  the  winds  of  heaven.  This  was,  however, 


92G  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

only  superfluous  fury.  No  one  proposed  to  turn 
the  Protestant  clergymen  out  of  their  churches.  It 
is  not  impossible  that  the  fiery  ecclesiastic  who 
gave  this  Guy  Fawkes  advice  was  himself  minister- 
ing in  a  church  which  had  been  taken  by  force 
from  its  Catholic  owners.  The  agitation  against 
the  bill  produced,  however,  no  sensible  effect  upon 
the  mind  of  the  country  at  large.  It  thundered 
and  blazed  for  a  few  days  or  weeks  here  and  there, 
and  then,  after  occasional  grumblings  and  sputter- 
ings,  sank  into  mere  silence." 

Lord  Derby  did  not  long  survive  the  passing  of 
the  measure  which  he  had  opposed  with  such  fervor 
and  so  much  pathetic  dignity.  His  last  speech  was 
that  which  he  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords 
against  the  second  reading  of  the  Irish  Church  Bill, 
on  June  17th,  1869.  "I  am  an  old  man,"  he  said  ; 
"  I  have  already  passed  three-score  years  and  ten. 
My  official  life  is  entirely  closed,  my  political  life 
is  nearly  so,  and  in  the  course  of  nature  my  natural 
life  cannot  now  be  long."  It  was  sooner  ended 
perhaps  than  any  one  expected  who  heard  him  de- 
liver that  last  eloquent  protest  against  a  measure 
of  reform  which  he  was  unable  to  oontrol,  for,  on 
the  23d  of  tht  following  October,  he  died  at 
Knowsley. 

A  iew  agitation  had  sprung  np  in  Ireland.  It 
was  simply  the  revival  of  O'Connell's  Repeal  move- 
ment. It  was  called  the  Home  Rule  Organization, 
and  embraced  among  its  members  some  of  the 
ablest  and  most  influential  men  in  the  country, 
among  whom  were  Isaac  Butt,  Edward  Purdon, 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF   IRELAND.  927 

Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  Sir  John  Barrington,  Rev. 
Joseph  E.  Galbraith,  F.T.,  C.D.,  the  Venerable 
Archdeacon  Goold,  A.  M.  Sullivan,  William  Shaw, 
M.P.,  King-Harinan,  and  about  fifty  other  gentle- 
men of  national  prominence,  besides  a  number  of 
merchants  and  professional  men.  A  meeting  was 
held  in  the  room  of  the  Kilton  Hotel,  Dublin,  on 
the  19th  of  May,  1870.  Though  it  was  private,  the 
Orangeman  and  the  Ultramontane,  the  staunch 
Conservative  and  sturdy  Liberal,  the  Nationalist, 
Repealer,  the  Fenian  and  the  Loyalist,  all  sat  to- 
gether discussing  the  subject  in  a  friendly  and 
sympathetic  manner.  Out  of  that  meeting,  of  such 
incongruous  elements,  sprang  what  was  known  as 
the  Home  Kule  Club. 

At  this  conference  was  one  man  who  quietly 
listened  to  the  arguments,  pro  and  con.  Though  he 
had  strong  Irish  sympathies,  though  he  had  de- 
fended the  Fenians  in  their  hour  of  trial,  he  had 
heretofore  never  identified  himself  with  Irish  affairs. 
That  man  was  Isaac  Butt. 

After  a  time  he  rose  to  his  feet  and  spoke  with 
great  earnestness  and  emphasis  in  replying  to  some 
allusion  to  Irish  sedition  and  Fenianism.  "It  is  we 
— it  is  our  inaction,  our  desertion  of  the  people  and 
the  country,  the  abdication  of  our  position  and  du- 
ties— that  have  cast  these  men  into  the  eddies  and 
whirlpools  of  rebellion  !"  he  exclaimed.  "If  you 
are  ready  to  lead  them  by  constitutional  courses  to 
their  legitimate  national  rights,  they  are  ready  to 
follow  you.  Trust  me,  we  have  all  grievously 
wronged  the  Irish  Catholics,  priests  and  laymen. 


928  POPULAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAOT. 

As  for  the  men  whom  misgovernment  has  driven 
into  revolt,  I  say  for  them,  that  if  they  cannot  aid 
you,  they  will  not  thwart  your  experiment.  Arise  I 
Be  bold  I  Have  faith,  have  confidence,  and  you  will 
save  Ireland  ;  not  Ireland  alone,  but  England  also  1" 

He  concluded  by  proposing  : 

"  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  that  the 
true  remedy  for  the  evils  of  Ireland  is  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Irish  Parliament,  with  full  control  over 
our  domestic  affairs." 

This  motion,  which  was  the  birth  of  Home  Rule, 
was  unanimously  carried  by  acclamation. 

The  organization  was  called  "The  Home  Gov- 
ernment Association  of  Ireland."  A  set  of  fun- 
damental resolutions  were  also  adopted,  specifying 
the  aim  and  object  of  the  organization.  Their  tone 
and  spirit  may  be  inferred  from  the  following 
clause,  viz.: 

"  To  obtain  for  our  country  the  right  and  privilege 
of  managing  our  own  affairs,  by  a  Parliament 
assembled  in  Ireland,  composed  of  her  Majesty 
the  Sovereign  and  her  successors,  and  the  Lords 
and  Commons  of  Ireland  ; 

"  To  secure  for  that  Parliament,  tinder  a  federal 
arrangement,  the  right  of  legislating  for  and  regu- 
lating all  matters  relating  to  the  internal  affairs  of 
Ireland,  and  control  over  Irish  resources  and  revenues, 
subject  to  the  obligation  of  contributing  our  just 
proportion  of  the  Imperial  expenditure." 

The  Home  Rule  agitation  made  steady  progress, 
and  the  popular  sentimeut  in  its  favor  was  shown 
by  the  election  of  several  candidates  pledged  to  ita 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  929 

principles :  for  instance,  Mr.  John  Martin,  a  Home 
Rule  candidate,  was  returned  member  for  Meath; 
Mr.  Mitcliel  Henry,  for  Galway ;  Mr.  P.  J.  Smyth, 
for  West  Meath ;  and  crowning  all,  Mr.  Butt,  for 
Limerick. 

The  Irish  Land  question  had  also  become  an 
important  issue  in  Irish  politics,  and  Gladstone 
recognizing  the  fact  that  the  land  system  was  a 
monstrous  grievance,  resolved  to  grapple  with  it  as 
he  had  done  with  the  Established  Church. 

The  land  of  Ireland  was  owned  by  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  landlords,  the  majority  of  whom 
were  absentees,  the  representatives  of  titles  acquired 
by  conquest  or  confiscation.  The  old  occupiers 
were  compelled  to  become  mere  serfs  or  tenants  at 
will  to  their  conquerors,  who,  in  order  the  better  to 
keep  them  in  subjection,  kept  them  poor  and 
oppressed.  The  unfortunate  tenants  had  no  interest 
in  being  industrious  or  in  improving  their  farms. 

If  they  improved  the  patch  of  soil  they  worked 
on,  their  rent  was  almost  certain  to  be  raised,  or 
they  were  turned  out  of  the  land  without  receiving 
a  farthing  of  compensation  for  their  improvements. 
Of  course  there  were  many  excellent  landlords, 
humane  and  kindly  men — men,  too,  who  saw  the 
wisdom  of  being  humane  and  kind.  But  in  the 
majority  of  cases  the  landlords  and  the  agents  held 
firmly  by  what  seemed  to  them  the  right  of  property — 
the  right  to  get  as  high  a  price  for  a  piece  of  land 
as  it  would  fetch  in  open  competition.  The  demand 
for  land  was  so  great,  the  need  of  land  was  so  vital, 
that  men  would  offer  any  price  for  it.  Men  would 


930  POPULAR    HISTORY   07  TBELAITO. 

offer  prices  which  they  must  have  known  they  could 
never  pay,  which  they  must  have  known  the  land 
would  never  enable  them  to  pay.  Offering  land  for 
hire  in  Ireland  was  like  offering  money  on  loan  to 
needy  spendthrifts ;  any  terms  would  be  snatched 
at  by  the  desperate  borrower  to-day,  no  matter 
what  was  to  happen  to-morrow.  When  the  tenant 
had  got  hold  of  his  piece  of  land,  he  had  no  idea  of 
cultivating  it  to  the  best  of  his  strength  and  oppor- 
tunities. Why  should  he  ?  The  moment  his  hold- 
ing began  to  show  a  better  appearance,  that  moment 
he  might  look  to  having  his  rent  raised,  or  to  being 
turned  out  in  favor  of  some  competitor  who  offered 
higher  terms  for  occupation.  "Why  should  he  im- 
prove ?  Whenever  he  was  turned  out  of  the  land 
he  would  have  to  leave  his  improvements  for  the 
benefit  of  the  landlord  or  the  newcomer.  He  was, 
therefore,  content  to  scratch  the  soil  instead  of 
really  cultivating  it  He  extracted  all  he  could  from 
it  in  his  short  day.  He  lived  from  hand  to  mouth, 
from  hour  to  hour.  The  whole  system  of  feudal 
tenure  of  laud  under  a  master  was  new  to  Ireland. 
It  began  with  Ireland's  conquest,  and  it  was  identi- 
fied in  the  mind  of  the  Irish  peasant  with  Ireland's 
degradation.  Everything  was  there  that  could 
make  oppression  bitter.  The  landlord  began  to  be 
looked  upon  at  last  as  the  tenant's  natural  enemy. 
Ribbon  societies  were  formed  for  the  protection  of 
the  tenant.  The  protection  afforded  was  only  too 
often  that  of  terrorism  and  assassination.  The 
ribbonism  of  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland  was  as 
strictly  the  product  of  the  land  system  of  the  couu- 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  931 

try  as  the  trades-union  outrages  in  America  are  the 
offspring  of  the  unequal  and  unjust  legislation  that 
gave  all  the  power  to  the  master  and  lent  no  protec- 
tion to  the  workman.  All  the  while  five  out  of  every 
six  English  writers  and  political  speakers  were  dis- 
coursing gravely  on  the  incurable  idleness  and  law- 
lessness of  the  Celtic  race  and  the  Irish  peasant. 
The  law  gave  the  Irish  tenant  no  security  for  the 
fruit  of  his  labor,  and  Englishmen  wondered  that  he 
was  not  laborious.  The  law  told  him  that  when  he 
had  sown  he  should  not  be  entitled  to  reap,  and 
Englishmen  were  angry  that  he  would  not  persist  in 
sowing.  Imperial  legislation  showed  itself  his  stead- 
fast enemy,  and  Englishmen  marveled  at  his  want 
of  respect  for  the  law. 

An  eminent  American  traveler,  writing  on  the 
state  of  Ireland,  says  : 

"No  one  can  conceive  how  terribly,  sadly,  wretch- 
edly poor  human  beings  can  be  and  live,  until  he  haa 
ridden  by  cabin  and  crib,  burrow  and  stile,  and  all 
the  nameless  shifts  for  shelter  that  offend  the  eye  in 
the  poorer  parts  of  Ireland.  Not  one  decent  home, 
not  one  comfortable,  tidy  dwelling,  not  one  cleanly, 
well-fed,  neat  human  being.  Troops  of  sad,  wan, 
starved  children,  nearly  naked,  smeared  to  the  eyes 
with  dirt  and  ashes,  and  their  unkempt  heads  power- 
fully garrisoned  with  '  Scotch  grays,'  followed  us 
mile  after  mile,  plaintively  wailing,  '  A  peuny  if  ye 
plaze,  sur.'  Men  and  women  with  the  dull,  dead 
expression  of  despair  in  their  eyes,  waded  out  to 
gaze  upon  us  from  their  cabins  and  holes  in  the 
ground,  or  between  the  rocks,  literally  ankle  deep  in 


932  POPULAR  EISTOBY   01  EEELAND. 

mud  and  filth,  and  clad,  or,  rather,  unclad,  in  such 
tattered  tatters,  that  Lazarus  was  attired  in  princely 
robes  in  comparison.  Deer  stood  in  the  fields  and 
birds  sat  upon  the  trees,  fearless  of  man,  for  no 
Irishman  is  permitted  to  have  a  gun,  or  to  touch 
bird  or  beast,  even  though  his  family  starve  before 
his  eyes.  I  also  noticed  that  in  the  whole  long  ride 
of  fifty -four  miles  I  never  saw  a  dog.  Think  of 
people  too  poor  to  keep  a  dog !  But  all  through 
this  country,  amid  mountain  wilds  and  rugged 
passes,  by  cabin  and  den,  through  solitudes  and  des- 
olation, ran  a  road  better  than  rich  and  prosperous 
Springfield  possesses.  I  might  say  all  that,  and 
still  leave  the  impression  that  the  road  was  a  very 
poor  one,  and  therefore  I  add  that  it  was  very  good, 
smooth,  even  free  from  stones,  and  hard.  The  con- 
dition of  Ireland  is  a  burning,  glaring  disgrace  and 
shame.  The  statesmanship  that  through  all  these 
years  has  been  unable  to  devise  and  apply  remedies 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  sufferings  of  this  gener- 
ous, kindly  and  well-meaning  people  is  weak  and 
criminal,  and  deserves  to  be  wiped  out,  peaceably  or 
forcibly,  as  circumstances  may  require.  If  England 
cannot  govern  Ireland  decently,  so  that  it  will  cease 
to  offend  the  sense  and  wring  the  hearts  of  civilized 
beholders,  she  ought  to  be  made  to  '  step  down  and 
out'  We  rode  forty  miles  through  lauds  wholly 
owned  by  two  men,  and  one  of  these  men  had  not 
been  upon  his  estate  for  more  than  three  years.  The 
estates  are  managed  by  agents,  who  are  instructed 
and  compelled  to  squeeze  and  wrench  every  possible 
dollar,  yes,  farthing,  from  the  starving  tenants  and 


POPULAR    HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  933 

forward  it  to  the  owner,  who  spends  it  in  London  or 
the  continental  cities.  If  the  tenant  improves  the 
estate,  as  soon  as  his  lease  expires  his  rent  is  raised 
to  the  full  value  of  the  improvements,  or  he  is  at 
once  evicted  and  robbed  of  all  his  labors.  The  land- 
lords refuse  to  give  long  leases,  and  thus  no  im- 
pulse of  ambition,  no  light  of  hope,  is  permitted 
birth  in  the  poor  man's  heart.  I  made  a  point  of 
talking  with  the  peasantry,  and  found  they  fully 
understand  their  grievances,  and,  although  they 
have  no  definite  plan  for  their  redress,  some  leader 
will  be  raised  up  who  will  direct  and  guide  their 
desperation  into  such  effective  form  that  English 
selfishness  and  conceit  will  be  compelled  to  give  it 
heed." 

When  we  read  such  statements  from  the  impartial 
pens  of  foreigners,  we  ask,  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
Ireland  is  disloyal  and  rebellious,  and  only  thirsting 
for  the  opportunity  to  fling  off  the  English  yoke? 

The  cry  of  land  reform  had  been  taken  up  from 
time  to  time  by  able  men  in  Ireland  and  England  ; 
for  generations  it  had  been  the  subject  of  political 
agitation  and  parliamentary  debate.  The  Devon 
Commission  had  made  ample  investigation  of  its 
principles  and  its  operation.  Mr.  Sharman  Craw- 
ford had  in  vain  devoted  an  honest  life  to  the 
advocacy  of  tenant-right.  Mr.  Cardwell,  Mr.  Chi- 
chester  Fortescue  and  Lord  Naas  had  introduced 
measures  trying  more  or  less  feebly  to  deal  with 
Irish  land  tenure.  Nothing  came  of  all  this.  The 
supposed  right  of  the  landlord  stopped  the  way. 

Mr.  Gladstone  came  into  power  as  a  reformer,  and 


834  POPULAB   HISTOBY   OF   IRELAND. 

in  justice  to  him  it  must  be  said  that  he  has  done 
much  to  break  down  the  feudal  barriers  that  hedged 
in  landlordism.  In  truth  he  was  the  first  English 
statesman  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  tillers  of  the 
soil  had  b^ino  right  in  its  products ;  and  he 
declared  in  a  speech  delivered  by  him  on  an  election- 
eering tour,  that  the  Irish  upas  tree  had  three  great 
branches — the  State  Church,  the  Land  Tenure  Sys- 
tem, and  the  System  of  Education — and  that  he 
meant  to  hew  them  all  down  if  he  could. 

After  such  an  announcement  as  this,  no  one  was 
surprised  when,  on  February  15th,  1870,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone introduced  his  Irish  Land  Bill  into  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  measure  was  one  of  far  greater 
importance  as  regarded  its  principles  than  it  proved 
to  be  in  its  practical  operation.  In  plain  words, 
•what  it  did  was  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  whole 
system  of  land  tenure  in  Ireland,  so  far  as  it  was  the 
creature  of  law,  was  based  upon  a  wrong  principle. 
Mr.  Gladstone's  measure  overthrew  once  for  all  the 
doctrine  of  the  landlord's  absolute  and  unlimited 
right.  It  recognized  a  certain  property  or  partner- 
ship of  the  tenant  in  the  land  which  he  tilled. 

After  considerable  discussion,  the  bill  passed  both 
houses  without  any  substantial  changes  or  alterations, 
and  on  August  1st  it  received  the  royal  assent 

Gladstone's  Irish  Land  Bill  did  not  prove  as  great 
a  boon  as  was  anticipated. 

The  landlord  class,  always  alive  to  their  selfish  in- 
terest, found  means  to  frustrate  the  good  intentions 
of  the  bill,  and  the  result  was  increased  evictions 
followed  by  agrarian  outrage* 


POPULAB  HISTORY   OE   IRELAND.  935 

An  event  which  caused  much  sorrow  in  England 
and  throughout  the  civilized  world  was  the  sudden 
death  of  Charles  Dickens,  which  took  place  on  June 
8th,  1870. 

Gladstone,  as  a  proof  of  his  sincerity  to  effect 
judicious  reforms,  introduced  other  important  mea- 
sures. 

He  had  pledged  himself  to  abolish  the  State 
Church,  which  he  had  accomplished ;  to  reform  the 
Irish  land  tenure,  which  he  found  a  herculean 
task  ;  and  to  establish  vote  by  ballot,  which  he 
finally  succeeded  in  doing.  While  the  Government 
was  thus  wrestling  with  public  opinion  in  Ireland, 
and  making  certain  concessions  in  the  shape  of 
reforms,  the  war  broke  out  between  France  and 
Germany,  which  proved  so  disastrous  to  the  former, 
and  ended  by  the  dethronement  of  Napoleon  and 
the  establishment  of  a  French  Republic. 

In  Ireland  the  Home  Rule  party  were  daily  in- 
creasing in  power  and  influence,  and  on  the  18th  of 
September,  1873,  a  conference  was  held  in  Dublin 
in  the  great  circular  hall  of  the  Rotunda,  where  the 
celebrated  Convention  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  under 
the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  held  their  deliberations  in 
1783. 

Mr.  William  Shaw,  M.  P.  for  Cork,  was  elected 
president.  With  scarcely  an  alteration,  the  principles 
and  programme  of  the  Home  Government  Associa- 
tion were  affirmed  by  national  authority,  and  that 
organization  thereupon  being  dissolved,  a  new  one, 
"The  Irish  Home  Rule  League,"  was  established  to 
take  charge  of  the  national  movement. 


936  *OPULAB   HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 

Nothing  could  better  exemplify  the  temper  of  the 
people  in  favor  of  Home  Eule  than  the  fact  that 
when  vacancies  occurred  in  the  representation  of 
Kilkenny  and  other  counties,  the  Home  Rule  candi- 
dates were  elected  under  most  trying  circumstances, 
and  when  Gladstone  suddenly  dissolved  Parliament 
in  January,  1874,  and  appealed  to  the  country,  the 
Home  Rulers  returned  to  Parliament  with  about 
sixty  members  pledged  to  support  the  movement. 

The  death  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  1873  allayed  the 
fears  of  England  and  Germany,  as  well  as  of  the 
young  Republic  of  France,  against  a  monarchical 
restoration  in  favor  of  the  Napoleon  dynasty. 

About  this  time,  too,  Lord  Lytton,  the  brilliant 
novelist ;  Dr.  Livingstone,  the  famous  explorer  and 
missionary  ;  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  other  eminent 
men,  died. 

If  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  coup  d'etat  had  surprised 
the  country,  the  country  in  return  surprised  him,  for 
on  the  assembling  ol  the  new  Parliament  Mr.  Glad- 
stone found  himself  in  a  hopeless  minority,  and 
therefore  resigned  the  Premiership  in  favor  of 
Disraeli. 

The  new  Parliament  opened  with  a  Conservative 
ministry  not  only  in  office  but  in  power.  Mr. 
Disraeli  found  liimself  at  the  head  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty  devoted  followers ;  while  not  more  than 
about  two  hundred  and  forty  stood  beneath  the 
banner  of  the  late  Premier.  As  to  the  remaining 
sixty,  a  state  of  things  previously  unknown  was 
about  to  present  itself.  Immediately  on  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  elections,  the  Irish  Home  Rule  members 


POPULAR   HISTORY  OF   IRELAND.  937 

assembled  in  the  council-chamber  of  the  City  Hall, 
Dublin,  and  after  deliberation  earnest  and  prolonged 
adopted  resolutions  constituting  themselves  "a 
separate  and  distinct  party  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons." In  truth  it  was  upon  this  understanding, 
expressed  or  implied,  they  were  one  and  all  returned. 
They  forthwith  proceeded  to  make  the  requisite 
arrangements  to  such  an  end.  Nine  of  their  body 
were  elected  to  act  as  an  executive  council.  Secre- 
taries and  "  whips  "  were  duly  appointed.  Motions 
and  measures  were  agreed  upon  for  introduction. 
Thus  constituted,  marshaled,  and  organized,  the 
Irish  Home  Rulers  took  their  seats  in  the  imperial 
Parliament. 

They  decided  to  offer  a  bridge  to  the  opposing 
forces  of  Irish  demand  and  English  refusal.  Apart 
from  the  question  of  Home  Rule,  which  they  knew 
would  require  much  time,  they  resolved  to  lay  before 
the  House  of  Commons  several  schemes  of  practical 
legislation,  the  merits  of  which  could  hardly  be  con- 
tested, and  the  success  of  which  might  fairly  be 
expected.  The  concession  of  these  would,  on  the 
one  hand,  lead  the  English  people  gradually  to  look 
into  the  nature  of  Irish  claims,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  lead  the  Irish  people  to  place  more  confidence 
in  constitutional  effort.  It  was  probably  the  best 
and  wisest  policy  such  a  party  could  devise.  "  You 
will  gain  nothing  by  it,"  said  some  amongst  them ; 
"  you  will  accomplish  nothing  by  this  moderation. 
You  will  be  blindly  voted  down  all  the  same.  It  is 
a  policy  of  combat  you  should  set  yourselves  to 
pursue."  "We  sr^ll  try  that,  if  we  must;  but  not 


938  lOPULAB    HISTORY   OF  IBELAND. 

if  we  can  avoid  it,"  answered  the  Home  Rule 
chiefs. 

Amidst  such  circumstances,  beset  by  such  diffi- 
culties, inspired  by  such  hopes,  facing  so  grave  a 
problem,  the  Irish  Home  Rule  Party  pushed  for- 
ward from  1874  to  1877,  the  exponents  of  a  new 
policy,  the  representatives  of  a  New  Ireland  at 
Westminster. 

Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan  sums  up  their  hopes,  their 
fears  and  disappointment  as  follows  : 

"  From  1874  to  1878  the  policy  thus  stated  was 
steadily  pursued.  For  the  first  two  or  three  years, 
with  a  hopefulness  of  spirit  that  was  blind  to  all  dis- 
couragement, Mr.  Butt  led  his  forces  to  the  cheerless 
endeavor.  The  gloomy  prophecies  were  but  too 
darkly  fulfilled.  He  was,  indeed,  'blindly  voted 
down  all  the  same.'  It  was  not  merely  that  his 
Home  Rule  motions  were  overwhelmed  ;  but  even 
on  what  his  adversaries  themselves  would  call 
practical  questions  of  the  simplest  character  and 
most  notorious  utility,  the  strength  of  a  combined 
Conservative  and  Liberal  majority  was  mercilessly 
used  to  crush  him.  In  every  division  the  vote  of 
Ireland — that  is,  the  votes  given  by  Irish  represent- 
atives of  every  section  and  party — showed  a  remark- 
able preponderance  in  one  direction  ;  while  the  over- 
bearing vote  of  Great  Britain,  on  these  purely 
domestic  Irish  affairs,  was  just  as  preponderatingly 
in  the  other.  As  to  the  Home  Rule  motions,  the 
first  (Amendment  to  the  Address,  on  the  20th  March, 
1874),  exhibited  these  results  :  Irish  vote — ayes,  48; 
noes,  26— defeated  by  288  British  votes.  The  second 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OP  IRELAND.  939 

(2nd  July,  1874),  Irish  vote — ayes,  53 ;  noes,  37 — 
defeated  by  421  British  votes.  The  third  (30th 
June,  1876),  Irish  vote — ayes,  52  ;  noes,  33 — rejected 
by  258  British  votes.  The  fourth  (24th  April,  1877) 
showed  similar  results. 

"This,  however,  it  may  be  said,  was  on  a  question 
held  by  all  British  parties  to  be  '  beyond  the  range 
of  practical  politics.'  But  the  Irish  questions  within 
that  range  fared  just  the  same.  The  questions  of 
this  latter  class,  which  the  Irish  members  declared 
to  be  of  most  importance,  were  a  Land  Bill  and  a 
Grand  Jury  Reform  Bill.  Besides  these,  they 
exhibited,  moreover,  a  perseverance,  nay,  a  pertina- 
city, that  might  well  have  moved  their  foes  to  admi- 
ration, in  endeavors  to  assimilate  the  laws  relating  to 
Borough  and  Municipal  Franchise  in  Ireland  and 
England.  Again  and  again,  session  after  session, 
they  pointed  to  the  indisputable  fact  that  they  sought 
nothing  for  Irish  municipalities  or  Irish  voters,  in 
borough  or  county,  that  English  municipalities  and 
English  voters  did  not  already  enjoy.  In  vain — all 
in  vain." 

Though  the  Home  Rule  agitation  in  Ireland  was 
kept  under  the  lash  and  frown  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, the  people  showed  their  utter  contempt  of 
British  law  and  the  British  Parliament  by  electing 
O'Donovan  Rossa,  who  was  then  serving  out  his  term 
in  prison,  as  member  of  Parliament  for  Tipperary. 
The  Government  and  their  auxiliaries  in  Ireland 
became  furious  at  this  outrage,  and  of  course 
declared  the  election  illegal  In  the  next  contest, 
Charles  Kickham,  who  had  been  just  released  from 


940  POPULAB  HISTORY   OF  IBELAKD. 

prison,  and  whose  death  we  have  lately  to  lament» 
was  taken  up  by  the  gallant  people  of  Tipperary, 
and  though  the  Government  threw  into  the  scales  all 
its  influence,  men,  money  and  arms,  against  the 
people,  Kickham  was  defeated  only  by  four  votes  in 
such  a  vast  constituency,  and  this  small  victory  was 
secured  by  bribery  and  intimidation. 

The  bold  peasantry  of  Tipperary  chafed  under 
this  defeat,  and  demanded  the  resignation  of  Mr. 
White,  the  successful  candidate,  alleging  that  he 
was  not  the  choice  of  the  people,  and  with  a  unani- 
mous shout  they  called  on  John  Mitchell,  the  felon, 
to  fill  his  place.  He  responded  by  leaving  for  Ire- 
land, and  on  Saturday,  July  25th,  1874,  he  arrived  in 
Queenstown,  the  port  from  whence  he  was  carried 
away  hi  chains  twenty-six  years  before,  in  the  convict 
ship  the  Scourge.  * 

He  returned  to  New  York  after  visiting  his  friends 
in  Ulster,  as  no  vacancy  occurred  just  then  ;  but,  in 
January,  1875,  Colonel  White  resigned,  and  Mitchell 
was  telegraphed  to  leave  for  Ireland,  which  he  did, 
but  before  his  arrival  there  he  was  elected  member 
of  Parliament  for  Tipperary. 

The  Government  at  once  moved  Parliament  to 
quash  the  return,  on  the  ground  that  John  Mitchell 
was  an  unpardoned  "  felon,"  basing  their  action  on 
the  precedent  set  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  case  of 
O'Donovan  Rossa.  The  cases  were  widely  different. 

*  It  ueems  the  Scourge  quitted  the  harbor  in  a  shower  of  rain, 
whlcb,  to  Mitchell's  regret,  noon  hid  the  land  from  view.  It  hap- 
pened that  when  the  steamer  by  which  he  arrived  in  1874  ent<  red 
the  port,  rain  was  falling  heavily.  "Good  Godl"  he  exclaimed, 
with  a  humorous  emile,  "La  not  that  shower  oror  vet  ?" 


POPT7LAB   HISTOBT   OF  IRELAND.  941 

It  was  held  by  competent  lawyers  that  John  Mitchell'i 
term  of  "transportation"  had  been  endured  and 
fulfilled  "  beyond  the  seas " ;  and  as  to  his  escape 
from  Australia  in  1854,  the  Crown  lawyers,  though 
again  and  again  explicitly  charged  and  challenged 
on  the  subject,  flinched  from  the  fatal  point  that 
(owing  to  circumstances  needless  to  detail  here) 
Mitchell  was  not  in  legal  custody  when  taken  from 
Cape  Town  to  Tasmania.  The  House  of  Commons, 
however,  in  dealing  with  Irish  disaffection,  cares 
little  for  law  or  constitution,  but  goes  straight  to  the 
object  of  "  supporting  the  Government."  The  elec- 
tion of  Mitchell  was  annulled.  A  new  writ  was 
issued.  Again  he  was  put  in  nomination — this  time 
despite  the  remonstrances  of  the  Home  Rule  leaders, 
who  saw  what  was  at  hand.  A  local  ultramarine 
Conservative  had  himself  nominated,  polled  a  hand- 
ful of  votes,  and  successfully  claimed  the  seat,  though 
Mitchell  headed  him  by  thousands.  Before  any 
formal  decision  on  the  subject  could  be  delivered, 
the  controversy  was  tragically  ended.  While  the 
voices  of  the  multitude  were  saluting  John  Mitchell 
victor,  Death  was  claiming  him  as  his  own.  He 
returned  to  the  old  family  seat  at  Dromolane,  where 
he  quietly  breathed  his  last,  and  was  laid  to  rest  in 
the  old  family  burying-ground,  where  within  a  week 
the  incorruptible  John  Martin  was  laid  beside  him. 
The  vacancy  in  the  representation  of  Meath, 
caused  by  the  death  of  John  Martin,  was  filled  by  a 
young  man  who  was  destined  to  effect  a  revolution 
greater  than  O'ConnelTs  in  Irish  politics. 


942  POPULAR   HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 

This  Protestant  young  gentleman  was  no  other 
than  Charles  Stewart  ParnelL 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL. — THE  LAND  LEAGUE  AGITA- 
TION.— EXCITEMENT  IN  IRELAND. — SUSPENSION  OF 
THE  HABEAS  CORPUS. — ARRESTS  AND  IMPRISONMENT. 
— THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  LORD  CAVENDISH  AND  MR. 
BURKE. — THE  CEREMONIES  OF  THE  UNVAILING  OF 
THE  O'CONNELL  MONUMENT  AND  THE  OPENING  OF 
THE  DUBLIN  EXHIBITION,  AUGUST  ISra,  1882. 

Charles  Stewart  Parnell  came  of  a  family  always 
dear  and  faithful  to  the  Irish  people. 

On  the  roll  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  in  the  crisis 
of  its  fate,  the  names  of  Sir  John  Parnell,  and  of 
Henry  Parnell,  his  son,  filled  a  prominent  and  an 
honorable  place.  The  former  had  been  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer ;  but,  recoiling  from  Pitt's  proposal 
to  subvert  the  Irish  Constitution,  he  refused  to 
support  the  Government  in  such  a  policy,  and,  after 
bribes  and  blandishments  had  failed  to  allure  him, 
was  dismissed  to  make  room  for  the  celebrated  Isaac 
Corry.  In  the  column  of  "Observations"  in  the 
famous  "  Red  List "  of  Sir  Jonah  Harrington,  there 
appears  opposite  the  name  of  "  Right  Hon.  Sir  John 
Parnell "  the  one  word,  "  Incorruptible."  Both  oi 
these  Parnells,  father  and  son,  stood  by  Henry 
Grattau  to  the  last.  We  know  of  no  family  in  whom, 


K>FtTLAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  943 

for  a  well-authenticated  record  of  two  hundred  years, 
the  virtues  of  public  integrity  and  private  worth,  as 
well  as  rare  gifts  of  intellect,  have  been  more  con- 
spicuously hereditary  than  in  the  Parnells. 

Here  it  might  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  a  few 
words  about  this  remarkable  young  man  himself. 

Mr.  Parnsll  was  born  in  the  ancestral  mansion  at 
Avondale,  in  June,  1846.  Not  only  was  he  wholly 
educated  in  England  and  by  Englishmen,  but  it  may 
be  said"  that  from  the  age  of  six  years  until  he  had 
reached  man's  estate  his  life  was  passed  on  the  Eng- 
lish side  of  the  Channel.  The  Parnells,  although 
so  intensely  Irish,  and  such  devoted  friends  of  the 
Catholics,  were  always  earnestly  religious  Protestants; 
and  Mrs.  Parnell  tells  us  "  particular  pains  were  taken 
to  place  Charles  with  manifestly  kind  and  religious 
people."  At  the  age  of  six  years  he  was  placed  at 
school  in  Yeovil,  Somersetshire  ;  next,  with  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Barton,  at  Kirk-Langley,  Derbyshire  ;  next, 
with  the  Rev.  Mr.  "Wishaw,  in  Oxfordshire  ;  and 
eventuaUy  at  Cambridge  University — the  University 
of  which  his  father  was  a  graduate.  Although  the 
strong  individuality  of  his  American  republican 
mother — a  lady  of  remarkable  intellectual  power — 
cannot  have  been  without  its  effect  on  him,  young 
ParnelTs  political  leanings  up  to  the  year  1867  were 
rather  conservative  and  aristocratic. 

The  executions  of  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien,  at 
Manchester,  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  heart  of 
young  Parnell,  and  his  Irish  feeling  and  patriotism 
soon  after  asserted  themselves.  After  completing 
his  education  he  spent  a  few  years  in  travel,  ancl 


944  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

returned  to  bis  ancestral  home  at  Avondale  in  1871, 
to  enter  on  his  duties  as  a  landed  proprietor.  He 
soon  afterwards  formed  the  Home  Rule  League. 

A  vacancy  having  occurred  in  the  County  Dublin, 
the  League  decided  on  running  young  Parnell 
against  Colonel  Taylor.  It  was  a  forlorn  hope. 

Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan  says,  speaking  of  the  public 
meeting  held  to  select  a  candidate  : 

"  Mr.  Parnell  made  his  debut  in  public  life.  The 
resolution  which  I  had  moved  in  his  favor  having 
been  adopted  with  acclamation,  he  came  forward  to 
address  the  assemblage.  To  our  dismay  he  broke 
down  utterly.  He  faltered,  he  paused,  went  on,  got 
confused,  and,  pale  with  intense  but  subdued 
nervous  anxiety,  caused  e<Fery  one  to  feel  deep  sym- 
pathy for  him.  The  audience  saw  it  all,  and  cheered 
him  kindly  and  heartily  ;  but  many  on  the  platform 
shook  their  heads,  sagely  prophesying  that  if  ever  he 
got  to  Westminster,  no  matter  how  long  he  stayed 
there,  he  would  either  be  a  "Silent  Member,"  or  be 
known  as  "  Single-speech  Parnell." 

A  silent  member,  or  single-speech  Parnell!  Oh, 
far-sighted  individuals!  Oh,  men  of  prophetic 
power!  What  would  the  House  of  Commons  not 
give — what  would  Her  Majesty's  Ministers  not  give 
to-day — that  your  words  had  come  true ! 

Colonel  Taylor  was  re-elected  easily  ;  but  "Young 
Parnell "  had  borne  himself  so  gallantly  in  the  fight 
that,  on  the  death  of  John  Martin,  as  already  men- 
tioned, in  the  spring  of  1875,  he  was  adopted  as  the 
Home  Rule  candidate  for  Meath,  and,  despite  a 
severe  contest,  was  triumphantly  returned. 


POPTTLAR   HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  945 

As  it  now  turns  out,  that  was  a  not  uneventful  day 
in  the  parliamentary  history  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  at  first  a  rather  taciturn  member  of 
Parliament,  but  gradually  he  gained  confidence,  and 
assailed  Government  measures  with  such  scathing 
vehemence,  that  those  who  looked  upon  him  with 
feelings  of  forbearance  now  began  to  wonder  and 
admire. 

He  thwarted  the  Government  in  their  schemes, 
and  exposed  their  crimes  and  their  weakness  in  a 
scathing,  cold-blooded  manner. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  1877,  the  Mutiny  Bill  was 
brought  before  the  House,  and  never  did  Parnell 
appear  to  better  advantage  than  in  the  debate  that 
followed.  He  showed  up  the  brutality  of  the  lash, 
the  triangle,  and  other  means  of  torturing  the  un- 
fortunate soldier,  in  such  a  light  that  English  mem- 
bers almost  felt  ashamed  of  themselves  as  well  as  of 
these  relics  of  barbarism. 

"Meantime,"  says  Mr.  Sullivan,  "around  the 
young  Meath  member  and  his  headlong  followers 
the  popular  opinion  of  Ireland  had  gathered  and 
intensified  day  by  day.  Every  shriek  of  anger  in  the 
English  press  was  answered  by  a  shout  of  rapturous 
exultation  on  the  Irish  shore.  Every  attempt  of 
Parliament  to  censure,  to  punish,  or  to  humiliate 
Mr.  Parnell,  raised  him  higher  and  higher  in  the 
esteem  of  his  countrymen.  Although  still  professing 
himself  merely  a  private  member  of  the  Irish  Party 
under  Mr.  Butt,  he  utterly  dominated  the  titular 
leader.  The  Man  of  Moderation,  the  Policy  of 


946  K>PULAR    HI8TOKY   OP  IBELAND. 

Conciliation,  had  had  their  day.  The  Man  and  the 
Policy  of  Combat  were  now  to  have  their  turn. " 

The  Irish  people  soon  began  to  realize  the  terrible 
fact  that  the  frightful  scenes  of  the  famine  years 
again  threatened  them.  The  harvest  of  1877  was  a 
i'ailure,  yet  the  landlords  exacted  their  rents  to  the 
last  penny.  The  harvest  of  1878  was  also  a  failure, 
and  a  gloomy  foreboding  began  to  seize  men's  minds. 
The  poor  farmers  borrowed  and  raised  money  by 
every  possible  means,  in  order  to  pay  the  landlords. 

In  the  winter  of  1878,  the  Irish  farmers  woke  up 
to  the  terrible  fact  that,  on  the  hazard  of  yet  another 
crop,  that  of  1879,  their  very  existence  hung.  The 
desperate  rack-rents  of  the  rising  times  lay  heavy  on 
them.  They  were  deeply  in  debt  to  the  banks,  to 
the  guano  agents,  and  seedsmen.  Yet  at  all  sacri- 
fices, and  at  any  price,  further  credit  must  be  had,  or 
means  obtained  to  put  in  the  1879  crop,  and  tide 
over  the  months  to  the  autumn  of  that  year.  Now, 
indeed,  they  bitterly  realized  that  the  Land  Act  of 
1870  was  but  a  "  monument  of  good  intentions."  It 
had  been  wholly  impotent  to  protect  them  from  the 
dexterous  and  relentless  confiscation  wrought  by  a 
yearly  twist  of  the  rent-screw.  And  Parliament  1  At 
the  very  moment  these  gloomy  apprehensions  were 
silently  darkening  the  land,  the  House  of  Commons 
had  once  more  contemptuously  refused  even  an 
inquiry  into  the  Irish  Land  Question.  * 

*For  facts  connected  with  the  parliamentary  career  of  Mr. 
Parnell  and  Irish  affairs,  we  are  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  A.  M. 
Sullivan's  Neva  Ireland. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.  947 

The  winter  months  of  1878-'79  were  tided  over 
with  great  difficulty  by  the  poor  farmers,  but  starva- 
tion threatened  thousands  who  had  nothing  but 
their  daily  wages  to  live  upon. 

The  peasantry  of  Conneruara  and  other  parts  of 
Connaught  were  actually  starving,  and  the  "  begging- 
box  "  was  already  going  around  for  them.  In  April, 
1879,  a  meeting  was  held  in  Mayo  at  which  Michael 
Davitt  came  to  the  front  as  a  land  agitator.  The 
history  of  this  remarkable  man  was  full  of  suffering 
and  devotion.  Michael  Davitt's  father  was  evicted 
in  the  terrible  famine  years,  and  he  and  his  family 
crossed  over  to  England,  and  settled  at  Haslingden, 
Lancashire.  He  never  forgot  his  early  wrongs  and 
Buffering,  and  the  boy  grew  up  to  be  a  Fenian  and  a 
bitter  hater  of  England. 

He  lost  his  arm  by  its  being  crushed  by  a  wheel  in 
the  mill  where  he  worked.  He  had  then  to  take  up 
other  pursuits,  which  brought  him  more  closely  in 
connection  with  the  Fenians. 

In  1870  young  Davitt  was  arrested  in  London, 
charged  with  being  an  arms-agent  for  the  Fenians, 
tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years  penal 
servitude.  A  painful  shock,  a  keen  sense  of  wanton 
severity,  went  through  all  who  knew  him,  for  they  all 
loved  the  frank,  fearless,  honorable  young  Irishman, 
and  wept  at  his  fate.  For  seven  years  he  endured  the 
horrors  of  penal  servitude  in  association  with  crimi- 
nals of  such  loathsome  character  that  he  never  spoke 
of  them  afterwards  save  with  a  shudder.  In  1878  he 
was,  as  it  was  called,  "  amnestied,"  the  "  amnesty  " 
taking  the  shape  of  the  ordinary  ticket-of-leave 


948  POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

given  to  murderers  and  burglars  ;  but  this  the 
Government  said  was  only  a  matter  of  form.  Along 
•with  him  were  liberated  Sergeant-Major  MacCarthy 
and  two  or  three  others  of  the  political  prisoners — 
MacCarthy  being  now  in  the  last  gasp  of  heart  dis- 
ease, and  it  may  be  said,  liberated  only  to  die.  On 
their  arrival  in  Dublin,  an  immense  concourse  of 
the  inhabitants — more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
people — with  bands  and  banners,  turned  out  to 
greet  them.  Next  morning  Davitt  and  MacCarthy 
were  about  to  breakfast  with  Mr.  Parnell  at  his 
hotel,  when  MacCarthy  complained  of  a  sudden 
faintness.  Davitt  sprang  to  his  side,  evidently 
fearing  the  worst.  Putting  his  arm  tenderly  around 
his  much-loved  fellow-prisoner,  he  bore  him  to  a 
sofa.  The  others  rushed  to  his  aid,  and  saw  that  it 
was  all  over  with  MacCarthy — that  the  wife  and 
children  in  the  south  of  Ireland  whom  he  was  hur- 
rying off  by  that  day's  train  to  meet  would  hear 
his  voice  no  more.  Davitt,  sobbing  like  a  child, 
bent  over  him,  and  soon  the  faithful  comrade's  tears 
were  falling  on  the  face  of  the  dead. 

Davitt  paid  a  hasty  visit  to  the  United  States  to 
see  his  mother,  and  sister  who  resided  there. 
While  there  he  held  council  with  Fenians  and  others 
prominently  identified  with  Irish  national  matters, 
lie  had  a  scheme  which  was  no  other  than  the  total 
abolition  of  landlordism  and  the  substitution  of 
peasant  proprietors. 

"Having,"  writes  Mr.  Sullivan,  "secured  the 
good-will,  if  not  actual  co-operation,  of  a  fair  num- 
ber of  influential  friends  amongst  the  Advanced 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  IltELAND.  949 

Irishmen  in  the  States,  he  returned  to  Ireland  ;  for 
the  question  still  remained  whether  this  New 
DepartHre,  with  its  novel  eclecticism,  would  take  at 
home.  How  would  the  Home  Rulers  like  to  see  a 
movement  pushed  to  the  front  that  might,  for  a  time 
at  all  events,  hide  away  their  own  ?  How  would 
the  remnants  of  the  Fenian  battalions — broken,  dis- 
rupted, scattered,  weakened,  but  not  destroyed — 
take  to  a  course  of  action  which  was  to  be  open  and 
above-board,  avoiding  violence  and  illegality,  and 
working  only  by  the  ordinary  modes  of  political 
warfare  ?  Above  all — and  this  seemed  his  greatest 
obstacle — how  would  the  public  men,  the  Catholic 
clergy,  and  the  existing  Tenant-Right  Organizations 
(all  pledged  to  a  joint-proprietary-interest  or  Laiid- 
lord-and-Tenant  scheme  of  settlement)  receive  a 
project,  the  first  principle  of  which  was  to  decry 
and  contemn  as  utterly  inadequate  "  the  Three  F's," 
till  now  the  maximum  of  the  tenants'  demands  ? 
Davitt  faced  all  these  difficulties.  After  much, 
quiet,  patient,  unobtrusive  but  arduous  labor,  he 
determined  to  raise  the  standard  in  his  native  coun- 
try, and  almost  on  the  site  of  the  ruined  hearth 
that,  thirty  years  ago,  was  his  father's  home.  This 
he  did  by  organizing  the  demonstration  above 
referred  to,  held  at  Irishtown  on  the  28th  of  April, 
1879.  He  himself  was  prevented  from  being  present 
by  missing  a  railway  train,  but  the  meeting  was 
attended  and  addressed  by  Mr.  Daly,  of  Castlebar 
(who  presided)  ;  by  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  M.P.  ; 
Mr.  John  Ferguson,  of  Glasgow  ;  Mr.  Thomai 
Brennan,  and  Mr.  J.  J.  Louden,  B.L," 


950  POPULAR  HISTORY   OF  ERELAXD. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Irish  Land  War  of 
1879-1882. 

At  first  the  Irish  members  and  Home  Rule 
leaders  took  no  part  in  the  new  departure.  They 
anxiously  watched  it.  They  knew  that  it  was  a 
scheme  not  to  be  lightly  embraced. 

Meantime  it  became  evident  that  there  was  a 
famine  in  Ireland,  and  the  Irish  members  appealed 
to  the  House,  only  to  be  laughed  at  for  their  ground- 
less fears.  On  the  27th  of  May,  1879,  the  Irish 
members,  finding  that  Parliament  was  about  being 
adjourned  without  doing  anything  for  Ireland, 
resolved  to  force  the  subject  on  the  attention  of 
the  House  of  Commons. 

Mr.  O'Donnell  said  "  he  rose  for  the  purpose  of 
calling  attention  to  the  deplorable  and  unendurable 
condition  of  the  landed  interests  in  Ireland.  The 
Land  Bill  of  the  Right  Hon.  gentleman,  the  mem- 
ber for  Greenwich  (Mr.  Gladstone),  was  a  monument 
of  the  good  intentions  of  that  Right  Hon.  gentle- 
man rather  than  of  the  capacity  of  English  parties 
to  deal  with  Irish  questions." 

He  then  proceeded  to  entreat  the  attention  of  the 
Government  and  of  Parliament  to  the  troubles  that 
were  gathering  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  said  "he  was  perfectly 
certain  that  the  distress  in  Ireland  had  become  so 
great  as  to  render  an  attempt  by  Parliament  to 
deal  with  the  question  imperative  and  unavoidable. 
They  (the  Irish  members)  heard  from  farmers,  from 
priests,  and  peasants  alike  that  the  crisis  was  immi- 
nent, urgent,  and  even  perilous." 


POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.  951 

Mr.  O'Connor  Power  said  "bow  long  did  they 
think  the  Irish  people  would  submit  to  have  their 
grievances  postponed  for  the  convenience  of  the 
Government  ?  If  Parliament  did  not  come  forward, 
within  a  reasonable  time,  with  some  measure  of 
legislation  calculated  to  relieve  the  depression  of 
the  present  state  of  agriculture  in  Ireland,  scenea 
would  arise  in  Ireland  that  would  be  far  more  dan- 
gerous to  the  rights  of  property,  and  to  the  order 
and  tranquillity  which  should  prevail  in  that  country, 
than  any  that  Ireland  had  been  afflicted  with  in  her 
long  struggle  with  the  ignorance,  if  not  incompe- 
tency,  of  the  English  Parliament.  If  those  warnings 
were  now  unheeded,  and  Pai-liament  should  plead 
for  further  delay,  the  consequences  must  be  fixed 
on  their  own  shoulders." 

Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan  said  "  there  could  be  no  doubt 
that  there  was  alarming  distress  among  the  agricul- 
tural interests,  not  only  of  Ireland,  but  of  Great 
Britain.  He  would  neither  express,  nor  join  in  ex- 
pressing, any  wholesale  indictment  against  the  land- 
lords of  Ireland.  They  fell,  in  his  opinion,  far  short 
in  many  respects  ;  but  he  had  never  failed  to  admit 
that  in  their  errors  and  shortcomings  they  might  be 
the  creatures  of  circumstances,  and  that  they  pos- 
sessed a  great  many  excellent  qualities  which  were 

not  always  remembered There  was  yet 

sufficient  time  to  grapple  with  the  evil." 

Mr.  Parnell  said  "  he  knew  from  experience  that 
great  agricultural  distress  prevailed  in  Ireland.  He 
was  talking  the  other  day  with  a  cess-collector  who 
told  him  that  he  had  never  had  such  difficulty, 


952  POPUIAB  HISTOBY  OP  IBELAKD. 

since  1847,  in  getting  money  from  the  farmers. 
.  .  .  .  He  would  not  prolong  the  discussion 
on  that  occasion  ;  but  unless  the  Government  were 
ready  to  afford  some  opportunities  for  the  consider- 
ation of  these  subjects  after  Whitsuntide,  and  unless 
they  intended,  at  all  events,  to  do  something  in  the 
direction  of  the  recommendations  of  Mr.  Shaw 
Lefevre's  Committee,  the  question  was  one  which 
would  have  to  be  taken  up  by  the  Irish  members  in 
a  firm  and  determined  fashion.  It  was  one  which 
deeply  affected  their  constituencies,  and  even  if 
they  were  disposed  to  hang  back  a  little  on  the 
subject,  the  constituencies  would  not  allow  them." 

Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  T.  M.  Healy,  Biggar,  Gray, 
Sexton,  Kelly,  Dillon,  Sullivan,  and  other  members, 
recognized  leaders  of  advanced  ideas,  followed  in 
the  same  strain. 

The  House  resented  the  idea  that  there  was  any 
danger  of  starvation  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Lowther,  Secretary  for  Ireland,  pooh-poohed 
the 'whole  affair,  laughed  at  the  idea  of  a  crisis 
in  Ireland,  and  angrily  resented  the  interference  of 
the  Irish  members. 

That  debate  sealed  the  fate  of  landlordism  in  Ire- 
land. The  Irish  members  left  the  House,  sore  at 
heart,  and  feeling  that  concessions  could  be 
wrung  from  England  only  through  menace  and 
fear.  Parnell  declared  himself  in  favor  of  Davitt's 
desperate  scheme,  and  proceeded  to  Ireland  to  join 
the  movement. 

On  the  8th  of  June,  1879,  he  appeared  on  the 
itand  with  Davitt  at  the  Westport  meeting,  when 


POPULAB   HISTORY  OF   IRELAND.  963 

he  uttered  the  memorable  sentence  :  "Keep  a  firm 
grip  of  your  homesteads." 

On  the  21st  of  October,  at  a  meeting  in  Dublin  of 
tenant-farmer  delegates  from  all  parts  of  Ireland, 
was  founded  "  The  Irish  National  Land  League." 

The  principles  and  purposes  of  the  organization 
were  set  forth  in  the  following  resolutions  : 

1.  That  the  objects  of  the  League  are,  first,  to 
bring  about  a  reduction  of  rack-rents  ;  second,  to 
facilitate  the  obtaining  of  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
by  the  occupiers. 

2.  That  the  objects  of  the  League  can  be  best 
obtained  by  promoting  organization  among  tenant- 
farmers  ;  by  defending  those  who  may  be  threatened 
with  eviction  for  refusing  to  pay  unjust  rents;   by 
facilitating  the  working  of  the  Bright  Clauses  of 
the  Land  Act  during  the  winter;  and  by  obtaining 
such  reform  in  the  laws  relating  to  land  as  will 
enable  every  tenant  to  become   the  owner  of  his 
holding  by  paying  a  fair  rent  for  a  limited  number 
of  years. 

Thus  was  founded,  perhaps,  the  most  powerful 
political  organization  that  Ireland  has  ever  had. 
At  this  meeting  Mr.  Parnell  was  elected  President ; 
Mi\  Patrick  Egan,  Treasurer  ;  Mr,  Michael  Davitt 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan,  Secretaries. 

The  Government  at  once  recognizing  the  weight 
of  this  new  power,  denounced  its  members  as  Fen- 
ians in  disguise,  concealed  rebels,  and  the  like. 
While  the  fact  was,  the  National  element  was 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  organization,  for  they  looked 
upon  it  as  a  revival  of  agitation  in  which  they  had 


954  POPULAR    HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 

no  faith.  They  might  have  clashed  had  not  th« 
counsel  of  cool-headed  men  prevailed,  who  made  a 
kind  of  compromise,  so  that  one  organization  might 
be  a  prop  to  the  other  without  interfering  with  its 
internal  affairs. 

The  Catholic  clergy  soon  came  to  look  upon  the 
movement  favorably,  and  many  of  them  became  its 
warmest  advocates. 

A  new  and  terrible  agent  gave  a  powerful  impe- 
tus to  the  Land  League  movement.  This  was 
famine — famine  which  threatened  Ireland  with  the 
terrible  visitations  of  '47  and  '48.  The  harvest  of 
'79  was  a  failure,  the  potato  crop  blighted  beyond 
hope.  The  black  worst  had  come.  Famine  was 
stalking  through  the  land. 

Mr.  Parnell  saw  that  the  League  must  convert 
itself  into  a  relief  committee.  He  and  John 
Dillon  decided  on  going  to  the  United  States  to 
appeal  to  the  Irish  there  for  the  relief  of  their  kin- 
dred at  home. 

John  Dillon  was  the  second  son  of  John  Dillon 
who  was  so  prominently  connected  with  the  '48 
movement,  and  was  the  worthy  successor  of  his 
patriotic  father. 

On  the  14th  of  December,  1879,  Messrs.  Parnell 
and  Dillon  sailed  from  Queenstown  for  America. 
They  were  greeted  in  New  York  with  public  and 
ofiicial  reception,  and  in  all  the  chief  cities  of  the 
Union  were  welcomed  with  military  parade  and 
popular  enthusiasm  as  the  Ambassadors  of  Ireland 
to  America.  A  few  weeks  later  they  were  joined 
by  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy.  Mr.  Healy  was  just  then 


POPULAR  HISTORY   OP  IRELAND.  955 

known  to  the  outer  world  only  as  "Private  Secre« 
tary  to  Mr.  Parnell,"  but  he  was  destined  to  make 
his  mark  in  the  British  Parliament.  An  honor, 
never  but  once  before,  since  the  days  of  Washington, 
vouchsafed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to 
any  man,  citizen  or  stranger,  was  extended  to  Mr. 
Parnell ;  he  was  invited  to  address  the  Chamber  on 
the  Case  of  Ireland.  From  State  to  State,  from 
town  to  town,  he  and  his  colleagues  sped  ;  speaking 
to  immense  and  enthusiastic  masses  of  people.  In 
three  months  they  obtained  not  far  from  250,000 
dollars  for  the  relief  of  distress  in  Ireland,  besides 
several  thousands  for  the  political  purposes  of  the 
Land  League. 

They  obtained  something  much  more  serious. 
This  embassy,  it  may  be  said,  resulted  in  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  and  important  factor  into  Irish,  or 
rather  into  British  politics,  namely,  a  strong,  a  per- 
manent and  systematized  supply  of  financial  support 
for  political  purposes  in  Ireland. 

Meantime,  throughout  all  the  western  districts  of 
Ireland  scenes  harrowing  and  heart-rending  beyond 
description  were  to  be  witnessed.  The  cry  of  anguish 
and  despair  rose  on  every  breeze.  It  was  like  a 
ghastly  recurrence  of  "  Forty-Seven."  In  the  schools 
— as  some  of  the  teachers,  with  moistened  eyes,  told 
the  story — the  terrible  state  of  affairs  at  home  could 
be  read  in  the  pinched  and  haggard  countenances 
of  the  children.  Inquiry  revealed  the  fact  in  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  cases  that  they  came  to 
school  every  morning  without  a  morsel  of  food  since 
the  previous  day,  and  could  at  best  only  hope  for 


956  POPULAB  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

their  share  once  a  day  of  whatever  the  father  or 
mother  might  beg  or  borrow  from  others  nearly  aa 
poor  as  themselves.  Next,  the  teachers  observed 
the  clothing,  on  the  little  girls  especially,  getting 
lanker  and  thinner,  as  the  under-garments,  few  at 
best,  went,  shred  by  shred,  to  the  village  pawn-shop. 
Day  by  day,  teacher  and  monitor  could  mark  the 
gradual  effects  of  gnawing  hunger  on  the  little  faces, 
until  one  by  one  they  were  missed  altogether  from 
the  school — and  added  to  the  cemetery.* 

The  "  process  "  in  Ireland  is  a  veritable  terror  to 
the  people ;  it  means  eviction,  death  by  the  road- 
side or  the  poor-house.  A  party  of  bailiffs  started 
out  with  a  load  of  these  death-sentences  of  the  poor, 
to  a  place  called  Carraroe,  Connemara,  on  the  6th  of 
January,  1880.  It  was  a  matter  of  death  to  the 
wretched  peasants,  and  women — for  few  men  were  at 
home — fiercely  assailed  the  bailiffs,  actually  flinging 
themselves  on  the  bayonets  of  the  police  who  guarded 
them. 

The  bailiffs  and  police  were  routed.  This  was  the 
Lexington  of  the  agrarian  revolution  in  Ireland.  It 
was  the  first  blow  in  the  war  against  rent 

Relief  committees  were  established  in  various 
places,  while  the  bailiffs  and  the  police  were  abroad 
seizing  on  the  starving  peasants'  wretched  furniture 
and  clothing  for  rent,  and  serving  them  with  notices 
to  quit.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  there  were  outrages 
and  bloody  reprisals  over  the  West  of  Ireland  ? 

Famine  was  spreading.  The  Government  was 
apathetic  and  listless,  and  not  until  shamed  into  it 

•  "New  Ireland,"  bj  A..  M. 


*6i>tfLAR   BISTORT  Of  IRELAND.  967 

by  the  action  of  America  did  they  even  recognize  its 
existence. 

Three  Central  organizations  for  the  relief  of  the 
famine  districts  were  formed.  One  was  got  up  by 
the  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  her  husband  being 
then  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  The  other  waa 
the  Mansion  House  Committee,  which  was  established 
by  the  Lord  Mayor,  Mr.  Edward  Dwyer  Gray,  M.  P., 
and  the.  third  was  under  the  management  of  the 
Land  League. 

The  Mansion  House  Committee,  despite  the  ill- 
concealed  jealousy  of  the  good  Duchess's  rival 
organization,  was  the  most  important  and  successful 
of  the  three  Relief  Bodies,  thanks  to  the  indomitable 
zeal  and  energy  of  Mr.  Gray,  the  Lord  Mayor.  But 
for  its  efforts  (bravely  supplemented  by  the  Duchesa 
and  the  Land  League)  the  trap-coffin  of  '47  would 
have  been  at  work  again.  Even  as  it  was,  hunger 
and  plague  made  a  grim  score  on  the  western  sea- 
board. 

In  March,  1880,  Lord  Beaconsfield  suddenly 
dissolved  Parliament.  Casting  about  for  a  good 
election  "  cry,"  he  decided  to  go  to  the  country  on 
the  charge  that  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Liberals  had 
dangerous  sympathies  with  the  Irish  Home  Rule 
Party — meditated  the  concession  of  Home  Rule,  in 
fact — a  "policy  of  decomposition"  he  called  it. 
His  own  policy,  however,  in  the  raising  of  such  a 
cry,  proved  to  be  the  real  "  policy  of  decomposition," 
for  in  a  few  short  weeks  it  effectually  decomposed 
the  Conservative  party.  Never  was  rout  more  dis- 
astrous than  that  which  they  suffered  at  the  polls, 


958  POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

The  Home  Rule  leaders  called  upon  Irishmen  every- 
where to  sink  every  other  consideration,  and  strike 
hard  against  the  Minister  who  thus  had  made  hos- 
tility to  Ireland    his    battle-cry.      This    call    was 
responded  to  with  strong  enthusiasm;  and  it  is 
beyond  all  question  that  in  England  alone  some 
thirty  or  forty  seats  were  carried  by  the  Irish  vote. 
Mr.  Sullivan,  writing  of  the  contest  that  followed, 
says  :  "  Mr.  Parnell  hurried  home  instantly.     He 
was  not  greatly  pleased  with  what  had  been  done  ; 
but  he  cordially  recognized  that  we  had  acted  for 
the  best.     I  informed  him  that  I  was  one  of  those 
most  responsible  for  the  course  of  action  taken  in 
thus  flinging  all  our  force  into  the  anti-ministerial 
array  ;  and  I  gave  him  my  reasons.     He  told  me  it 
would  have  been  infinitely  better  for  Ireland  to  keep 
the  Conservatives  in  power,  as  Lord  Beaconsfield 
would  infallibly  bring  England  into  some  disastrous 
European  complication,  the  occurrence  of  which 
would  be  the  signal  for  concessions  to  Ireland  far 
beyond  anything  Gladstone  would  ever  conceive. 
It  was  now,  however,  undesirable  or  impracticable  to 
undo  what  had  been  done,  but  not  all  too  late,  as 
Mr.  Parnell  considered,  to  accomplish  a  good  deal 
of  what  he  had  planned  to  do  in  Ireland.    This  was 
to  wage  unsparing  war,  not  so  much  on  the  Tories 
as  on  the   Nominal  Home  Rulers  and  confessed 
Whigs.     He  struck  at  them  fiercely — North,  South, 
East  and  West.     His  great  hindrance  was  a  dearth 
of  suitable  candidates  ;  but  his  theory  was  that  any 
candidate  who  ccfcdd  be  trusted  for  implicit  obedience 
to  orders  was  preferable  to  the  (personally)  most 


2OFULAB   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

estimable  of  men  who  could  not.  Pure  luck,  or 
perhaps  I  should  say  the  policy  of  desperate  daring, 
made  Mr.  Paruell  in  a  few  weeks  '  The  Organizer  of 
Victory.'" 

The  new  Ministry,  under  Mr.  Gladstone,  was 
constituted  in  May,  1880.  Never  were  the  hopes  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  so  bright  or  full  of  promise 
under  any  administration.  Gladstone,  who  had  dis- 
endowed the  Established  Church,  who  had  passed 
the  Land  Bill  of  1870,  who  was  so  generous  in  his 
views  on  Irish  subjects,  was  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Government. 

His  ad ,  out  to  office  was  hailed  with  warm  sympa- 
thies and  bright  hopes  which  were  soon  to  be  sadly 
dissipated. 

The  state  of  Ireland  was  now  desperate,  poverty 
and  actual  want  and  hunger  overspread  the  land. 

The  doctrine  that  the  people  should  not  starve 
though  the  landlords  went  without  their  rent,  waa 
preached  broadcast,  and  was  acted  upon.  The 
farmers  bound  themselves  into  leagues  not  to  pay 
any  more  rack-rents,  and  only  such  as  they  could 
afford  after  supporting  themselves.  This  right  of 
the  people  to  live  was  declared  communistic  by  the 
landlords  and  the  Government,  and  they  resolved  to 
crush  it  out  by  wholesale  evictions.  But  they  did 
not  calculate  on  the  opposition  they  were  to  encounter 
or  the  compact  power  of  the  organization  raised  up 
against  them. 

When  a  landlord  evicted  a  tenant,  he  found  that 
no  one  would  take  the  farm,  no  one  would  work  or 
till  it,  so  that  it  became  a  perfect  waste  on  his  hands. 


960  POPULAB   HISTORY  Of   IBELAHIX 

Worse  than  ibis,  the  other  tenants  on  the  estate 
refused  to  pay  any  rent  until  the  evicted  tenant  or 
tenants  were  restored  to  their  holding. 

Some  landlords  wisely  made  concessions,  and  got 
in  return  a  fair  rent,  while  others,  who  felt  bound  to 
support  the  laws  and  Constitution  that  protected 
Irish  landlordism  in  its  heartless  extortions  and  ex- 
terminations, evicted  their  tenants  wholesale.  To 
do  this,  police  and  soldiers  with  cavalry  patrols  were 
called  into  requisition,  and  soon  Ireland  was  con- 
verted into  one  vast  garrison.  The  mischief  was, 
though,  that  as  soon  as  the  invading  army  was  with- 
drawn from  one  estate  to  carry  out  evictions  on 
others,  the  evicted  tenants  quietly  retook  possession 
of  their  holdings,  and  the  unfortunate  landlord  was 
driven  to  beggary  and  desperation.  Some  notorious 
oppressors,  such  as  Lord  Leitrim  and  Lord  Mount- 
morris,  fared  even  worse,  for  they  were  mercilessly 
shot  down  by  their  infuriated  victims. 

About  this  time  the  Boycotting  system  was 
adopted.  It  took  its  name  from  a  Captain  Boycott, 
who  was  a  cruel  and  exacting  agent  of  Lord  Erne, 
County  Mayo.  He  defied  the  people,  showing  much 
pluck  and  determination  ;  but,  then,  he  was  always 
accompanied  by  a  strong  guard  of  police.  His 
servants  left  him,  no  one  would  work  for  him,  no  one 
would  associate  with  him  or  his  family,  and  the 
shopkeepers  of  the  neighboring  towns  or  villages 
would  not  sell  him  anything. 

Here  was  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  landlords 
and  the  people.  A  hundred  Orangemen  from  the 
North  volunteered  to  go  to  Mayo  to  eat  and  harvest 


20PULAB   HISTORY   OF   IRELiND.  961 

Captain  Boycott's  crops.  They  came  escorted  by 
squadrons  of  infantry,  artillery  and  cavalry.  They 
passed  through  the  county  like  an  invading  army. 

The  people  of  Mayo  contented  themselves  with 
hooting,  but  would  not  sell  them  a  morsel  of  food  of 
any  kind,  so  that  supplies  had  to  be  forwarded  from 
Dublin,  and  the  soldiers  had  to  encamp  out  as  if  in 
actual  war.  At  length  Boycott's  crops  were  harvested, 
but  at  an  expense  of  about  four  times  their  value,  so 
that  both  the  Government  and  the  landlords  had  to 
abandon  this  mode  of  saving  the  harvest  and  of 
collecting  the  rents,  as  it  was  too  costly,  and  only 
tended  to  expose  them  to  ridicule.  After  this,  when 
any  one  was  ostracised,  it  was  said  he  was  "  Boycot- 
ted,*' an  application  given  to  the  name  by  Father 
O'Malley  and  Mr.  James  Eedpath,  the  latter  a  gentle- 
man sent  over  by  the  New  York  Tribune  to  write  up 
the  state  of  Ireland,  and  who  freely  used  his  scathing 
pen  in  excoriating  the  landlords  and  the  tyrannical 
oppression  of  the  British  Government  in  Ireland. 

The  Land  League  had  spread  over  all  Ireland. 
Blanches  were  established  in  almost  every  town  and 
village,  and  a  regular  agrarian  war  was  inaugurated. 

In  the  United  States  the  organization  spread 
rapidly  after  Mr.  Parnell's  visit  to  that  country.  In 
1881  a  convention  of  delegates  met  in  Chicago,  and 
pledged  themselves  to  support  by  every  means  in 
their  power  the  Land  League  in  Ireland  and  their 
platform  as  laid  down  at  the  Dublin  Convention, 
The  officers  elected  at  the  convention  wste ;  P.  A* 
Collins,  Boston,  President;  Bev.  Lawrence  Welsh, 
Waterbury,  Conn.,  Treasurer ;  and  Thomas  Flattery 


962  K)PUUUR    HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 

Boston,  Secretary.  The  organization  soon  spread 
over  the  United  States,  and  money  was  remitted  in 
tens  of  thousands  of  dollars.  Between  the  holding 
of  the  Chicago  Convention  in  1881  to  that  of  the 
"Washington  Convention,  April  12th,  1882,  fully 
one-half  million  of  dollars  was  remitted  to  the 
Land  League  at  home  from  the  United  Statei 
alone. 

This  money  was  employed  in  forwarding  the 
nt  erests  of  the  organization,  and  in  relieving  distress, 
iparticularly  among  those  who  had  been  evicted  from 
their  farms. 

Meantime  great  things  were  expected  from  Glad- 
stone's administration  ;  he  had  advocated  a  sweeping 
land  reform  in  Ireland,  and  now  that  he  was  in 
power,  great  hopes  were  entertained.  Even  Parnell's 
warning  voice  was  unheeded  in  the  general  jubila- 
tion. 

Gladstone,  as  if  in  manifestation  of  his  friendlj 
disposition  toward  Ireland,  introduced  the  "Dis- 
turbance Bill,"  which  was  simply  a  short  measure  oi 
two  clauses,  to  render  eviction  for  non-payment  of 
rent  a  disturbance  of  tenure  within  the  meaning  of 
the  1870  Act — that  is  to  say,  enabling  the  evicted 
tenant  to  sue  for  compensation  for  loss  of  tenure  and 
for  unexhausted  improvements.  It  was  to  extend 
only  to  tenants  within  certain  specified  "Distressed 
Districts,"  and  only  such  tenants  as  could  show  that 
they  were  unable  to  pay  by  reason  of  the  prevalent 
distress. 

It  was  whispered  around  that  this  was  only  the 
prelude  of  his  great  land  reform  mtasura. 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF  ISViLAND.  963 

But  when  the  Lords  rejected  the  "Disturbance 
Bill "  the  Irish  members  felt  that  there  was  no  hope 
of  forcing  through  either  House  any  bill  worth 
accepting.  This  was  waging  war  on  the  Irish  mem- 
bers and  the  Irish  tenantry.  They  recognized  this 
&ct,  and  those  who  were  heretofore  the  staunch 
advocates  of  land  reform  now  went  in  for  the  total 
abolition  of  landlordism. 

Mr.  Parnell,  who  had  been  elected  to  represent 
three  constituencies,  but  selected  that  of  Cork, 
•ounded  the  note  of  alarm,  and  Davitt,  Dillon,  T.  P. 
O'Connor,  Healy,  Kelly,  O'Donnell,  Biggar,  and  the 
other  prominent  members  of  the  League,  sustained 
him. 

It  was  evident  that  the  Lords  were  influenced  in 
their  action  by  the  landlords,  whose  power  of 
eviction  would  be  curtailed  had  the  bill  passed. 
The  Land  Leaguers  knew  this,  and  knew,  further, 
that  the  same  influence  would  prevent  the  passage 
of  any  land  bill  worth  accepting,  so  they  resolved  on 
waging  an  agrarian  war  on  the  landlords  and 
humbling  them  in  the  dust.  There  was  but  one 
opinion,  there  was  but  one  decision,  among  the 
leaders  of  public  opinion  in  Ireland.  The  people 
must  be  fully  organized  to  resist  the  attempts,  which 
were  sure  to  follow,  of  the  landlords  to  exterminate 
them.  The  League  leaders  felt  reluctant  to  give 
such  advice,  yet  submission  would  be  the  triumph 
of  the  landlords,  the  extermination  of  the  people. 
To  conduct  a  panic-stricken,  excited  and  angered 
people  successfully  through  a  policy  of  passivg 
resistance  was  a  critical  business.  This,  however, 


JOPDLAB  HKTOBT  OP  IBZLAITD. 

was  the  only  course  open  to  the  League,  and  on  ihii 
policy  they  went  to  work  with  a  will. 

The  landlords  raised  the  usual  howl  against  thia 
invasion  of  the  rights  of  property,  and  accused 
Gladstone  of  being  in  league  with  the  Irish  mem- 
bers. 

Mr.  Forster,  who  was  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland, 
had  been  heretofore  a  reformer,  an  advocate  of  the 
rights  of  the  people,  but  this  landlord  cry  and  Castle 
influence  soon  converted  him  into  Ireland's  most 
hated  enemy. 

Gladstone  and  Forster  started  out  by  a  vain  effort 
at  placating  English  clamor  and  landlord  greed,  and 
Land  League  prosecution  and  coercion  were  re- 
sorted to. 

In  October,  1880,  Ireland  was  startled  by  the 
announcement  that  the  Government  intended  to 
institute  a  prosecution  against  Mr.  Parnell  and  his 
colleagues.  This  rumor  was  soon  confirmed,  for  at 
the  opening  of  the  Dublin  Law  Courts  in  November, 
informations  were  exhibited  in  the  Queen's  Bench 
against  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  M.P. ;  John  Dillon, 
M.P. ;  T.  D.  Sullivan,  M.P. ;  Thomas  Sexton,  M.P. ; 
Joseph  G.  Biggar,  M.P. — members  of  the  Land 
League  Executive — Patrick  Egan,  Honorary  Treas- 
urer ;  Thomas  Brennan,  Honorary  Secretary ;  and 
M.  P.  Boyton,  Mathew  Harris,  P.  J.  Sheridan,  John 
W.  Walsh  and  M.  M.  O'Sullivan,  "organizers"; 
together  with  Mr.  P.  J.  Gordon  and  John  W.  Nally, 
holding  no  official  position  in  the  organization.  This 
was  the  first  act  of  war  on  the  part  of  the  Cabinet 
•gainst  the  Irish  Land  movement  From  November 


POPULAR   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.  965 

to  January  the  state  trials  formed  the  one  all- 
engrossing  topic ;  the  anti-landlordism  agitation 
being,  nevertheless,  pressed  as  fiercely  as  ever.  The 
trial  was  held  "  at  Bar,"  before  the  Lords-Justices 
Fitzgerald  and  Barry,  and  opened  on  the  28th  of 
December,  1880.  The  charge  against  the  traversera 
was  seditious  conspiracy;  a  conspiracy  to  "im- 
poverish landlords"  and  to  induce  tenants  not  to 
pay  debts  they  had  contracted  to  pay,  namely,  rent 

After  a  trial  lasting  nineteen  days,  ten  jurors  were 
for  acquittal  and  two  only  for  conviction. 

While  this  trial  was  pending,  the  battle  was  trans- 
ferred from  Dublin  to  Westminster.  Parliament 
opened  on  the  6th  of  January,  1881. 

It  was  to  be  an  Irish  session,  and  the  programme 
was  Coercion  first  and  Land  Reform  to  follow.  The 
good  old  times  when  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was 
suspended  in  a  day  were  to  be  rivaled.  An  Algerine 
Code  was  to  be  swept  through  the  House,  and  the 
Land  League  broken  up  at  a  blow. 

This  was  stunning  news.  Any  such  sudden  de- 
struction of  the  open  organization  could  have  but 
one  result — the  Ribbonite  and  other  secret  organ- 
izations, with  whom  even  as  things  stood  the  League 
had  had  a  troublesome  and  ticklish  time  of  it,  would 
have  possession  of  the  field. 

This  Coercion  Bill  was  a  deplorable  mistake,  and 
led  to  consequences  such  as  had  never  been  witnessed 
in  the  British  Parliament  before.  Here  was  Glad- 
stone with  the  scorpion  of  Coercion  in  one  hand  and 
a  makeshift  Land  Bill  in  the  other.  It  was  the 
refinement  of  arrogance  and  despotism. 


966  POPULAR   HISTORY   07  IRELAND. 

The  Land  League  members  fought  coercion  inch 
by  inch,  and  obstructed  the  passage  of  the  measure 
until  the  Speaker  even  violated  law  to  repress 
opposition,  and  ordered  members  under  arrest. 
Had  it  been  the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  English 
people  that  were  at  stake,  the  Speaker's  acts  would 
mean  revolution ;  as  it  was,  it  only  meant  the  sup- 
pression of  Irish  sedition. 

The  Coercion  Bill  was  passed,  and  on  the  7th  of 
April,  1881,  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  celebrated 
Land  Bill  with  an  oratorical  flourish  of  trumpets. 

This  bill,  which  was  a  great  inroad  on  vested 
rights  and  landlord  ascendency,  in  many  respects, 
fell  far  short  of  all  that  was  expected ;  however,  it 
might  have  received  a  warm  approval  from  the  Irish 
people  had  they  not  been  embittered  by  the  Coercion 
Bill,  and  their  hearts  filled  with  exasperation  and 
hate. 

The  Irish  members  gave  the  bill  a  bitter  opposition, 
and  fought  it  clause  by  clause.  Seen  in  the  light  of 
subsequent  events,  their  opposition  was  wise  and 
well-timed.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  deaf  to  all  argument, 
to  all  entreaty.  Twelve  months  of  civil  commotion, 
of  social  war,  of  strife,  outrage,  tumult  and  blood- 
shed, were  required  to  bring  him,  in  May,  1882,  to 
the  view  which  the  Irish  members  offered  to  his 
acceptance  in  May,  1881. 

On  the  29th  of  July,  1881,  the  Irish  Land  Bill 
passed  the  Commons,  and  was  sent  before  the  Lords, 
who  considerably  mutilated  it.  It  was  thus  returned 
to  the  Commons,  where  it  was  again  restored  to  ita 
original  shape,  and  returned  to  the  Lords,  who 


FOFULAB   HISTORY   OP   IEELAND.  967 

yielding  to  the  popular  wrath,  and  the  cry  raised 
against  class  legislation,  finally  passed  it. 

The  landlords  in  desperation  took  measures  to 
clear  off  all  the  tenants  who  had  been  served  with 
eviction  notices  before  the  bill  became  law,  and  a 
•cene  of  heartless  cruelty  on  their  part  and  bloody 
retaliation  on  that  of  the  people,  that  baffles  de- 
scription, followed. 

Angered  at  the  still  unsettled  state  of  the  country, 
and  the  opposition  given  to  the  Land  Bill  by  the 
leaders  of  the  Land  League,  Mr.  Forster  resolved  on 
a  stern  course,  so  as  to  break  down  the  spirit  of  the 
Irish  people.  He  even  induced  Gladstone  to  sup- 
port his  repression  policy.  He  soon  filled  the  pri- 
sons with  suspects  by  virtue  of  his  Coercion  law. 

Even  Parnell,  Dillon,  Father  Sheehy,  Davitt,  and 
several  others  of  their  colleagues,  did  not  escape  his 
brutal  suppression  policy,  for  they  and  other  sus- 
pects, to  the  number  of  six  hundred,  soon  found 
themselves  inmates  of  Kilmainham  and  other  pri- 
sons. 

Forster  found  Ireland  alarmed  and  disturbed.  He 
left  it  a  volcano  of  human  anger  and  passion  on  the 
one  side,  a  Government  Bastile  on  the  other.  The 
"village  ruffians"  and  midnight  assassins  went  by 
untouched,  while  innocent  men,  whose  only  crime 
was  to  openly  discuss  and  agitate  the  grievances  of 
ike  country,  soon  found  themselves  inmates  of 
dungeons.  Legitimate  political  agitation  was 
crushed  out,  the  voice  of  the  people  was  silenced  by 
prison-walls,  and  riots,  outrages,  and  bloodshed  over* 
•pread  the  land  with  a  network  of  crime. 


968  POPULAB  BISTOBT  OF  IBELAKD. 

Gladstone  at  length  began  to  open  his  eyes  to  the 
terrible  mistake  he  had  made.  He  found  that 
Coercion  was  a  failure  and  a  disaster.  Mr.  Forster 
was  recalled ;  the  prison-doors  were  unbarred ; 
Parnell,  Dillon,  Davitt,  and  others,  were  released, 
and  a  shout  of  joy  went  up  from  relieved  Ireland. 
A  new  policy  was  to  be  inaugurated ;  the  Land  Act 
was  to  be  made  complete;  an  Arrears  Bill  was  to  be 
introduced,  and  a  peasant  proprietorship  to  be 
established.  Indeed,  it  was  hinted  at,  and  with 
much  semblance  of  truth,  that  the  measures 
recommended  by  Parnell  and  his  colleagues  were  to 
be  adopted.  This  fancied  happiness  was  soon  to  be 
dissipated  by  the  murderous  hands  of  assassins. 

Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  a  liberal  and  popular 
young  nobleman,  was  appointed  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland,  in  place  of  Mr.  Forster. 

On  the  evening  of  the  6th  of  May,  1882,  he  was 
walking  through  the  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin,  in  com- 
pany with  Mr.  T.  H.  Burke,  the  Under  Secretary, 
when  they  were  set  upon  by  four  men,  who  drove 
up  to  them  on  a  jaunting-car,  and  cruelly  butchered 
them  with  knives  and  daggers.  The  murder  took 
place  in  view  of  the  Vice-Regal  Lodge,  and  the 
assassins  made  good  their  escape. 

There  was  much  conjecture  as  to  the  motives  that 
inspired  this  foul  murder.  Some  argued  that  it  was 
the  work  of  the  landlords  and  their  agents,  in  order 
to  frustrate  the  conciliatory  designs  of  Gladstone  by 
exciting  public  indignation  in  England,  whilst 
others  maintained  that  Cavendish  had  been  mistaken 
for  Forster,  for  he  had  only  landed  in  Ireland  the  day 


POPULAR   BISTORT  OF   IRELAND.  969 

previous,  and  was  not  personally  known  to  the 
public.  That  Forster  and  Burke  were  unpopular 
enough  to  be  assassinated  was  only  too  true,  but 
why  should  there  be  such  a  feeling  of  revenge 
against  Lord  Cavendish  ?  But  all  conjectures  soon 
merged  into  certainty.  It  was  discovered  that  the 
dreadful  deed  of  that  May  evening  had  been  the 
work  of  the  "  Invincibles,"  another  of  the  evil  pro- 
ducts of  which  tyranny  on  one  hand,  and  reckless- 
ness on  the  other,  have  been  so  prolific  during  Ire- 
land's unhappy  ages  of  English  rule. 

The  "  Invincibles  "  were  soon  apprehended.  The 
evidence  of  one  of  themselves,  and  one,  at  that,  who 
had  been  most  active  in  compassing  the  bloody 
work,  sufficed  to  convict  them. 

But  a  few  days  after  the  anniversary  of  this  crime, 
the  first  of  the  "  Invincibles,"  Joseph  Brady,  expiated 
it  upon  the  scaffold.  His  execution  was  followed  a 
few  days  later  by  that  of  Daniel  Curley,  and  so  it 
went  on,  until  by  the  middle  of  June,  Michael 
Fagan,  Thomas  Caffray  and  Timothy  Kelly  had 
perished  under  the  hands  of  Marwood,  and  Joseph 
Mullet,  Lawrence  Hanlon,  James  Fitzharris,  been 
sentenced  to  penal  servitude  for  life.  James  Mullet 
and  Edward  McCaffray,  Edward  O'Brien,  William 
Mooney  and  Daniel  Delany,  each  received  ten  years  ; 
Thomas  Doyle,  five  years. 

Peter  Doyle,  who  had  been  ill  during  the  commis- 
sion of  the  crime,  was  remanded,  and  his  case  has 
not  since  been  heard  of. 

Of  course  Dublin  could  now  be  no  longer  a  home 
for  Carey,  branded  as  he  was,  with  the  worst 


§70  2OPULAB   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

«pithet  in  the  Irish  vocabulary,  Informer!  The 
English  Government  fully  realized  this,  and,  accord- 
ingly, he  was  conveyed  on  board  the  Kinnfaun's 
Castle,  bound  for  Cape  Town,  which  was  deemed  a 
gafe  place  for  him  on  account  of  the  fewness  of  its 
Irish  settlers. 

But  all  precautions  were  to  prove  abortive.  The 
Kinnfaun's  Castle  was  carrying  out  not  only  Carey,  but 
Carey's  slayer.  The  voyage  was  accomplished  in 
safety.  Carey  had  almost  reached  his  destination, 
when  he  was  shot  by  O'Donnell,  and  expired  almost 
instantly. 

O'Donnell,  who  claimed  that  the  shooting  had 
been  done  in  self-defence,  was  at  once  brought  back 
to  England.  On  being  told  of  the  death  of  Marwood, 
the  famous  English  executioner,  which  had  taken 
place  a  few  days  before  his  landing,  he  is  said  to 
have  smiled.  His  trial  is  now  pending. 

The  Irish  both  at  home  and  in  America  denounced 
any  sympathy  with  the  Phoenix  Park  murder,  and 
mingled  their  sorrow  and  regret  with  those  of  England 
over  the  loss  of  one  who  had  been  sent  to  Ireland 
as  an  envoy  of  peace  and  reconciliation. 

Despite  the  repudiation  of  any  sympathy  with  the 
«rime  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  people,  the  old  cry  of 
vengeance  ran  through  England,  and  again  Glad- 
stone showed  his  weakness  by  yielding  to  this  bitter 
spirit  of  hatred,  and  introduced  his  "Repression 
Bill "  for  Ireland,  which  has  been  frankly  declared 
to  be  the  worst  coercive  measure  of  its  class  con- 
ceived in  the  most  glaring  and  despotic  history  of 
that  unfortunate  country. 


POFULAB  HJSTOEY  OP  IRELAND.  971 

Mr.  Parnell  experienced  a  sad  bereavement  in  the 
death  of  his  sister,  Miss  Fanny  Parnell,  which  took 
place  at  Bordentown,  N.  J.,  on  the  20th  of  July, 
1882. 

She  was  a  highly  cultivated  young  lady,  a  beauti- 
ful writer,  and  possessed  of  much  of  the  calm  resolu- 
tion of  her  brother. 

When  the  Government  aimed  at  the  suppression 
of  the  Land  League,  by  arresting  the  leaders,  she 
and  her  sister  Anna  took  up  the  torch  from  the 
altar  and  kept  alive  the  sacred  fire  through  the 
agency  of  the  Ladies'  Land  League.  Ireland 
lost  about  this  time  another  of  her  gifted  children 
and  purest  patriots,  in  the  death  of  Charles  J. 
Kickham. 

The  opening  of  the  Dublin  Exhibition  and  the 
unveiling  of  the  O'Connell  Monument,  which  took 
place  on  Lady  Day,  August  16th,  were  events  that 
marked  a  new  era  in  Irish  patriotism  and  Irish 
industry. 

Foley's  great  monument  to  O'Connell,  which  now 
graces  Saokville  Street,  Dublin,  is  perhaps  the  finest 
and  most  artistic  piece  of  sculpture  in  all  Europe. 
The  magnificent  O'Connell  Bridge,  near  which  it 
stands,  is  but  the  old  Carlisle  Bridge,  widened  to 
the  full  breadth  of  Sackville  Street,  and  rechristened 
by  the  patriotic  corporation  in  honor  of  the  great 
Liberator. 

It  was  calculated  that  fully  one  hundred  thousand 
persons  had  assembled  to  witness  the  ceremony  of 
unveiling  O'Connell's  statue,  and  when  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin,  Mr.  Charles  Dawson,  drew  aside 


979  POPULAR   HISTOBT  07 

the  veil  that  concealed  the  figure,  and  exposed  the 
lifelike  statue  of  the  grand  old  man,  a  shout  went 
up  from  a  hundred  thousand  throats  that  seemed 
like  the  knell  of  English  rule  in  Ireland. 

The  opening  of  the  Industrial  Exhibition  on  the 
same  day  was  another  great  triumph  for  the  people. 

All  aid  towards  its  erection  from  the  aristocratic 
habitues  of  the  Castle,  or  even  from  the  Viceroy  him- 
self, had  Seen  ignored,  and  the  magnificent  edifice 
raised,  by  the  shillings  of  tfee  people,  and  the  contri- 
butions of  merchants  and  traders.  The  designers 
spurned  aristocratic  patronage  and  aid,  and  for  once 
self-reliance  triumphed  in  Ireland. 

The  Exhibition  was  well  patronized;  its  stalls 
were  amply  supplied  with  all  kinds  of  Irish  manu- 
factures, and  its  successful  inauguration  is,  we  trust, 
the  harbinger  of  brighter  days  for  Ireland,  of  a  new 
era  of  prosperity  and  independence,  when  the  voices 
of  shuttle  and  wheel,  and  the  busy  hum  of 
industry,  shall  be  heard  from  Cape  Clear  to  the 
Giant's  Causeway,  from  the  Claddagh  to  Mullagh- 
mast,  and  when  every  man  shall  enjoy  in  the  fullest 
security  the  blessed  fruits  of  his  toil  under  the 
protecting  rule  and  fostering  care  of  a  Home  Gov- 
ernment I 


INDEX. 


IbcLsatioi    of  James  (I  de- 

c  arcd  . 573 

ibercrombie,  resignaliou  of, 

as  Comma'er-in-Chief.  700 
Sir  Ralph,  opinions  of. .  700 

Accession  of  Charles  1 478 

George  1 613 

George  II 619 

George  III 636 

James  I 465 

James  II 568 

Queen  Elizabeth 370 

Act  of  Renunciation  passed 
the  British  Parliament 

1783 658 

Uniformity 382 

Acts  of  First  Christian  Kings    21 
the  Native  Princes 298 

Administration  of  Anglesea, 

Marquis  of. 794 

Bedford,  Duke  of 634 

Bedford,  Duke  of 757 

Buckingham,  Lord 645 

Camden,  Lord 683 

Capel,  Lord,  in  1695 601 

Carlisle,  Lord 652 

Carteret,  Lord 618 

Chesterfield,  Lord 623 

Chicbester,  Sir  Arthur. .  467 

Cornwallis,  Lord 717 

Cromwell,  Henry 550 

Devonshire,  the  Duke  of  622 

Drury,  Sic  William 457 

Falkland,  Viscount 476 

Fitzwilliam,  Lord 675 

Grandison,  Lord 476 

Grey,  Lord 414 

Gray,  Lord  Leonard ....  350 

Halifax,  Lord 637 

Harcourt,  Lord 639 

Hardwicke,  Lord.... 754 

Harrington,  Lord 630 


MM 

Administration  of  Hertford, 

Marquis  of. 687 

Liverpool,  Lord ........  764 

March,  Earl  of. 27» 

Mountjoy,  Lord 438 

Ormond,  Earl  of 557 

Portland,  Duke  of. 654 

Richmond,  Duke  of 760 

Russell,  Sir  William  ...  421 

Sidney,  Sir  'Henry 891 

StraSord,  Lord 484 

Talbot,  Sir  John 294 

Townsend,  Lord 638 

Tyrconnell 568 

Wellesley,  Marquis 788 

Westmoreland,  Earl  of...  668 

Whitworth,  Lord 774 

York,  Richard,  Duke  of.  307 
Age  and  rule  of  Gerald,  8th 

Earl  of  Kildare 315 

Aggregate  Meeting  of  Ca- 
tholics    763 

Agitators,  active  operations 
of,  to  elect  O'Connell 

for  Clare 800 

face    to    face  with    the 

people 768 

Agrarian  combinations  a- 
gainst  excessive  rents 
and  excessive  tithes ...  665 

Injustice 641 

Agricola,   Roman    Governor 

of  Britain 4 

Almain,  battle,  between  Lein- 

ster  and  the  Monarch.    85 
Amergin,  Poet,   Priest   and 

Prophet 4 

American  War  of  1812 784 

Ancient  Irish  Constitution...     17 
Anglesea,   Marquis    of,   Ad- 
ministration of. 794 

Anglo-Irish,  effects  of  Civil 
War  iu  Euglund  on 

the 254 

(975) 


97S 


IKDKZ. 


MM 

Ai^lc-Irish,     desire    of    to 

naturalize  themselves  256 
Noblemen   of    the    15th 
Century,    Mental    re- 
sources of. •....  382 

Peerage,  a  new 861 

towns  under  native  Pro- 
tection   801 

Anglo-Norman  Invasion.For- 
eign  Relations,  pre- 
vious to 149 

Religion  and  Learning 
among  the  Irish  pre- 
vious to 133 

Social  condition  previous 

to  141 

Anne,  reign  of  Queen 605 

Ardee,  Ford  of,  battle  at 80 

Ard-righ,  or  High-King  ....       5 

Anns  Act,  passed,  1793 677 

Armor   and   Tactics    of  the 

Normans  and  Irish. . .   163 
Armstrong,  Capt.  Jn.Warne- 

ford,  treachery  of. ....  T01 
Arrest  and  seizure  of  officers 
and    papers    of  Back 

Lane  Parliament 688 

of  the  Earl  of  Glamorgan  629 

United  Irishmen 701 

Articles  of  Mellifont 457 

the  Treaty  of  Limerick..  598 
Art   JI'Murrogh,  expedition 

against 282 

Art  M'Murrogh,  Lord  of  Lein- 

ster 268 

Arts    during  the  Georgian 

era 781 

Ascendancy   of  the  Gerald- 

ines  of  Kildare 818 

AUi-senaid,  battle  of 87 

Assemblies,  general,  of  Au- 

cien*  Erin 21 

Athenry,  battle  of 245 

Athlone,  siege  of. 586 

4tiiios|)iieric  Wonders./....     89 
Atrocities  perpetrated  on  the 

United  Irishmen 698 

iughrim,  buttle  of 594 


B. 

Back  Lane  Parliament 087 

Back  Lane  Parliament,  arrest 


MM 
and  seizure  of  officers 

and  papers 688 

Bale's,  Bishop,  destruction  of 

shrines 874 

Baliol,  John,  of  Scotland. . .  234 

Bann  River 1 

Bardic  order,  preservation  of    28 

Bards  and  Story-tellers 3 

Bards,  histrionic 5 

Barrington,  Jonah,  descrip- 
tion of  the  passage  of 
the  Union  Resolutions  744 
Battle  of  Almain,  between 
Leinster  and  the  Mon- 
arch    35 

Athenry 245 

Ath-senaid 37 

Aughrim. 694 

Belan 84 

Benburb.... 531 

Boyne,  its  consequences,  586 

Breagh 77 

Castle  Dennot 66 

Clontarf 99 

Gurlieu  mountains 4G3 

Dublin 81 

Faughard 249 

Fontenoy 624 

Ford  of  "Ardee 80 

Fore 66 

Glenfesk 889 

Glenamalure 418 

Invernabark 62 

Killicrankie 583 

Killucan 294 

Kilmainham 2V3 

Kmsale 449 

Knockdoe 825 

Moira,in637, 80 

Monabraher 326 

NearTara 84 

Newry 78 

Rathfarnham 76 

Rathfarnham 703 

Rathmines 588 

Rathmore,  in  Antrim,  in 

680  and  684. 81 

Slane 81 

Sulchoid 88 

The  Boyne 588 

Thurles 1*4 

V.-llo-.v  Ford 41» 

Bedford,  Duke  of,  adminis- 
tration of, 634 


IlfDIX. 


977 


MM 

Bedford,  Dike  of,  adminis- 
tration of, 757 

Belan,  battle  of, 84 

Bellinghara,Sir  Ediv-'d,  Lord- 
Deputy 371 

Benburb,  battle  of, 531 

Benignus,  coadjutor  of  Pat- 
rick   18 

Berwick,  Scotland,  siege  of..  234 

Bill  of  Settlement 555 

Bishops    appointed    by    the    ' 

Crown 305 

Bog  of  Allen 2 

Bombardment,  first,  by  "  a 
vessel  carrying  great 

guns," 331 

Bomb'ament  of  Carickfergus.  582 
Bondage  of  the  Irish  race...  551 
Bond,  Oliver,  condemned  to 

fine  and  imprisonment  687 

Book  of  Articles 395 

Borough,  Thomas,  Lord,  ad- 
ministration of 426 

Boulter,  Primate,  high  posi- 
tion of, 619 

Boyne,  Battle  of  the 583 

Breagh,  battle  of, 77 

Brian  Boru 85 

Brian  Boru,  death  of, 100 

Brian   Boru,  fortunes  of  the 

family  of 114 

Brian   Boru,  great  battle  of 

Clontarf, 99 

Brian  Boru,  munificence  of..    95 

Brian  Burn,  tributes  to 94 

Bridget,  Suint, 57 

Broghill,    Lord,    Protestant 

leader 553 

Brown,  Archbishop, 867 

Bruais,  or  Farmers 8 

Bruce,  King  Edward,  conse- 
quences of  his  inva- 
sion    250 

death  of, 249 

era  of, 5*82 

Irish  opinion  of    252 

§mcj,    Robert,   arrival   and 

first  campaign  of, 247 

coronation   of,   at  Dun- 

dalk 242 

Northern  Irish  enter  into 

alliance  with, 237 

of  Scotland 284 

second  Campaign  of 242 


MM 

Bryan,  Sir  Francis,  ambition 

of 371 

Buckingham,  Lord,  adminis- 
tration of, 645 

Burgoyne,  surrender  of,    at 

Saratoga • . . . .  346 

Burke,  Edmnnd,  death  of,  in 

1797 684 

Burke,  Lieut.  Gen.  surrender 

of  Gal  way  to 515 

Butler,    Hon.    Simon,    con- 
demned   to    fine    and 

imprisonment 687 

of  the  United  Irishmen..  687 


C. 

Camden,    Lord,   administra- 
tion of 683 

Campaign  of  1595 423 

of  Essex  in  1599 431 

of  1643 516 

of  1689 579 

of  1690 583 

of  1C91 593 

Canning,  death  of,  1826. ....  793 
Canute,  founded  his  Danish 

dynasty  in  England. . .   107 
Capel,  Lord,  administration 

of,  1695 601 

Capitulation  of  Limerick ....  595 
Career   and   death   of   John 

O'Neill,  "  the  Proud,"  384 
Carew's  wit  and  cunning. ...  441 
Carickfergus,  bombardment.  583 
Carlisle,     Lord,    administra- 
tion of 653 

Carnival  of  corruption,  1789,  667 
Carteret,    Lord,   administra- 
tion of 618 

Cashel,  chief  seat  of  power 

for  Mundter 7 

Castle  Dermot,  battle  of 6« 

Castle  Martin,  truce  of 518 

Castlereagh,  Lord,  high  po- 
sition of 749 

Cathal  Crordearg,  rise  of. . .  199 
Catholic  addresses  to  George 

III 688 

agitation,  literature  of...  784 

army,  the 533 

association,     foundation 
of...  ....   .  7M 


t;a 


MM 

Catholic  Associations,  ques- 
tions for  consideration 

of. 790 

Bishops,  opposition  of, 

to  secret  societies 643 

Board,      i  .siiti  tinn    of, 

1311 763 

Board,  suppression  of. .  774 

concessions  to,  1807 757 

Committee,     dissolution 

of,  1811 763 

Catholic  Confederation 504 

adherence  of  the  Lords 

of  the  Pale 503 

civil  government  of 508 

Connanght,  events  in..  510 

Leiuster,  events  in 511 

Lords  of  the  Pule  pro- 
claimed rebels 506 

meeting  of  Bislnps 504 

military,    Establishment 

of 506 

Munster,  events  in 510 

National  Synod  of   Kil- 
kenny   508 

Ormond's  operations....   506 
rising    in    the    Midland 
and  Minister  Counties  499 

Ulster,  events  in 511 

Catho'.:c  Convention,  1792-3.  678 
deputation  to  Charles  I..  520 
Catb.nc  Emancipation,  Ad- 
dress of  Mr.  Keogh..  757 
agitation  of,  after  the 

Union 747 

committee     reconstruct- 
ed, 1809 762 

complete,  hopes  for. ....  782 
complete,      introduction 
of;  into  the  Irish  Par- 
liament.  688 

complete,  rejected 688 

debate  on  petition,  lost, 

1805 756 

defeat  of  Bill  for,  1818. . .  769 
defeat  of  Pitt  adminis- 
tration    747 

discussions  upon,   1810, 

1818 756 

distinct  line  of  policy  in 

favor  of 768 

final    Passage   of,    13th 

April,  H29 802 

Flood  opposed  to 659 


Catholic  Emancipation, 

Grattan's  annual  motion 

in  favor  of 765 

Grattan's  dfbut 756 

Grattan's    detailed    Bill 

for 766 

Grattan's  motion  defeat- 
ed, 1816 770 

Grattan's  motion  defeat- 
ed, 1817 773 

G  rattan  in  favor  of 659 

great    Irish    Questions , 

fluctuations  of 774 

great  issue  of,  in   elec- 
tions of  1807,  '12,  '18, 

and '26 762 

important  Debate,  1818.  766 

in  1816 775 

inquiry  into  state  of  Ire- 
land", 1324 79* 

Keogh,  address  of 757 

magnitude  of  the  ques- 
tion, 1826 798 

movement  in    favor    a- 

broad. 797 

no-popery  Cabinet,  1807  758 
Parnell's  motion    for   a 
committee  rejected,  18- 

15 770 

Pell's  resolutions,  1828, 

carried 808 

petition    of    800,000   in 

1828 798 

petition  of  old  Catholic 

committee,  1305 756 

petitions  of  1807  rejected  758 
petitions  of  1803  reject- 
ed   7M 

question  of,  again  urged.  757 
Relief  Bill  in  Commons, 

passed 809 

Relief    Bill,    in    Lords, 

passed 80J 

Resolutions  in  favor  of..  659 

"  Veto,  the  " 75« 

Catholic  meeting,  firtt,  since 

Queen  Anne 635 

Catholic  relief  bill,  the  second  646 

Relief  Bill  of  1798 671 

Rent 790 

Statesmen    of,   all  Pro- 

taH Tit 

Celebrities  in  Ancient  His- 
tory       f 


IHDEX. 


979 


PAOK 

CaStao  unity  in  Irish  govern- 
ment lost 104 

Cessation  and  its  consequen- 
ces    519 

Ciinuge  of  dynasty  in  Eng- 
land   288 

Charlemout,  death  of  the  ven- 
erable   739 

Charles  I.,  accession  of 478 

I.,  execution  of. 537 

II.,  restoration  of 552 

II.,  proclaimed  king....  537 

II.,  death  of. 562 

Chesterfield,  Lord,  adminis- 
tration of 623 

Chichester,  Sir  Arthur,  ad- 
ministration of 467 

Chief  officers  of  ancient  kings      5 
Christian  immigration  to  Ar- 

gyle 24 

Christianity,  first  dawn  of. .       8 
preached   at  Tara,    and 

results 10 

Civil  affairs  after  the  death 

of  Brian 104 

war  in  England 253 

war  in  England  again. . .   308 
Clare  election,  1828,  turning 
point  of  the  Catholic 

question 801 

Clare,  Lord,  death  of  in  1806  749 
Lord,    unenviable    posi 

tion 749 

Clarence,  Duke  of,  lord-lieu- 
tenant   261 

Clarendon,     Earl     of,     lord 

deputy 562 

Cloncnrry,  Lord,  public  let- 
ter of.  802 

Cloncnrry,  Lord,  O'Connell's 

favorite  counsellor. . .  802 

Clonmacnoise,  buttle  of 88 

C'.ontarf,  great  battle  of,  un- 
der Brian  Boru. 99 

CUae   of   the  career  of  De 

Courcy  and  De  Burgh  200 
of  the  Confederate  war. .  566 
of  the  revolutionary  war  597 
Coalition   ministry   in   Eng- 
land, 1788 659 

Coikitto,  the  left-handed,  de- 

'.  ;iikuUo;i  at  Mo.vtyn. .   520 

Columbkill,  Bishop M 

death  of  in  596 28 


•  HOI 

Columbkill.  Saint 43 

Commercial  restrictions,  re- 
laxation of. 64* 

Conciliation  committee  form- 
ed, 1821 788 

Confederation,  Catholic 504 

Confederate  delegates   sign- 
ing the  "Cessation".  519 
Confederacy,  Ulster,  formed  418 

Confederate  war,  the 513 

war,  the  close  of. 546 

Confiscation  of  the  midland 

counties 477 

Confiscation  of  Ulster 478 

Congall  II.,  king 35 

III.,  king 80 

Counall   and    Kelluch,  joint 

reign  of,  640 29 

Connaught,  ancient 7 

rising  in 244 

Conor  II.,  king 67 

Conor  Hoinmoy,  death  of. . .  193 

Conquest  of  Munster 451 

Contest  between  the  North 

and  South 120 

Controversy  between  Estab- 
lished    Church      and 
Protestant  Dissenters  620 
Consolidation  of  the  empire, 

pens  in  favor 731 

Constitutional  charter  of  1782  656 
Constitution,  first  prepared 
under  auspices  of  St. 

Patrick 17 

Constitution,  how  the  kings 

kept  it. 17 

Constitution  of  1782,  resolu- 
tion to  remain  intact..  741 
Convention  act,  passed,  1793  67i 

of  the  volunteers 65| 

of  volunteers  in  1783  . . .  66* 
Corbet,  William,  in  France.  783 
Cormac,  the  prince  bishop. .     78 
Coruwallis,    Lord,   adminis- 
tration of 717 

surrender  of,  effects  of. .  658 
Coronation  of  Edward  Bruce 

at  Dundalk 24* 

service,  oldest  form  of.       21 
Corporation  and  Test  Acts, 
800,000  Irish  Catholics 
praying  fur  repeal  of*.  799 
Corporation  and  Test  Acts, 

repeal  of  in  1828 791 


030 


WDM. 


MM 

Croft,  Sir  James,  lord-deputy  878 

Crom,  Die  god  of  fire 7 

Cromer,  pnmatc,  death  of...   366 
Cromwell's      campaign     of 

1G49-1650 539 

death  of 552 

Henry,  administration  of  550 

Henry,  lord-deputy 540 

Oliver,  death  ot 552 

Crosbie,  Sir  Edward,  ar- 
rest of  and  execu- 
tion  705 

Crowning  of  ancient    mon- 

archs 20 

Crowns  united 860 

Cruchain,  chief  seat  of  power 

for  Connaught 7 

Cumberland,  Duke  of,  fights 
the  French  at  Fonte- 
noy,  and  is  defeated  . .   625 
Curlieu  mountains,  battle  of  488 
Currau,  distinguished  in  de- 
bate   6«4 

John  I'll il pot,  genius  and 

courage  of 699 

last  days  of 777 

neglect  of  the  adminis- 
tration    758 

rejected  at  Newry  764 

retirement  from   public 

life,  1818 776 

death  of,  in  1817 775 


D. 

Danes  of  Dublin,  first  con- 
versions to  Christian- 
ity, in  948 81 

Daniel  O'Connell,  first  men- 
tion of 676 

Danish  descent  on  the  Coast 

of  Ulster 40 

Invasion 49 

Darcy,  Patrick 514 

Dark  ages  of  Ireland 140 

Death  of  Brian  Boru 100 

Chafes  II 562 

Cromwell 562 

Dermid  M'Murrogh  ....  175 

Donald  III 88 

Karl  of  March 279 

Lord  Hfaflbrd 488 

JiiaUII 64 


MM 
Death  of  Oliver  Cromwell. .  559 

Willam 604 

DC  Bermingham,  John 245 

De  Burgh,  close  of  the  career 

of 200 

Richard,  conflicts  of. ...  238 
Decay  of  English  interest  in 

1376 267 

De  Courcy,  close  of  the  career 

of 200 

John,  expeditions  of. ...  198 
Defeat  and  death  of  Sir  James 

Fitzmaurice 406 

De  Lacy,  Hugh 182 

Dermid  and  Blathmac,  joint 
.    succession  of,  in  656..     29 
M'Murrogh's    death     at 

Fernamore 175 

M'Murrogh's     Negotia- 
tions and  success  with 

Henry  II 156 

Derry,  siege  of 580 

Desmond,  Earl  of,  Execution 

of 318 

Destruction  of  relics,  etc 867 

Shrines 874 

the  Spanish  Armada 417 

Devonshire,  Duke  of,  admin- 
istration of. 622 

Popularity  of 622 

Dill  union  of  Printing  in  1591  462 

Disabilities  of  Papists 60ft 

Dissolution    of   Parliament, 

1789 668 

Division  and  decline,  con- 
tinued, of  the  "  Eng- 
lish Interest" 805 

Donald  II.,  succession  of,  in 

624 29 

III.,  king 87 

IV.,kinz 88 

Donough  I    king 88 

IL.king 77 

Dorset,  Duke  of,  administra- 
tion of. 619 

Dowdal,  Archbishop 877 

Doyle,     Dr.,     distinguished 

position  of . .  70S 

Druidism,  the  religion  of  an- 
cient Erin 7 

Drury ,  Sir  William,  adminis- 
tration of 4.r>7 

Dublin,  battle  of 71 

si«g«  Of 81 


mix. 


981 


PA6B 

Dnke  of  York,  Richard,  ad- 
ministration of 807 

Dunboyne,  Lord,  apostacy  of.  676 
Dundee,  fall  of  the  gallant.. .  582 
Duvergier's  series  of  letters 

on  the  State  of  Ireland  796 
Dynasty,  change  of,  in  Eng- 
land      288 

E. 

Larldom  of  Ulster,  extinction 

of. 251 

Earl  Richard,  death  of 185 

first  Campaign  of 169 

second  Campaign  of. ...  175 

Earls,  flight  of  the 470 

Early  Geography  of  Ireland.  1 
Educational  question,  1787..  664 

Edward  I.,  of  England 232 

il.,  of  England 232 

IV.,  events  of  the  reign 

of. 870 

Eighth  Century,  kings  of.  . .  85 
Election,  ancient  forms  of.. .  20 
Elizabeth  Queen,  accession  of  380 

death  of  Queen 456 

Emania,  chief  seat  of  power 

for  Ulster 7 

Embargo  on  export  of  pro- 
visions to  America. . . .  645 
on  export  of  provisions, 

proposed  removal  of. .  646 
Embassy  of  the  Earl  of  Gla- 
morgan   526 

Eminent  Irish  Saints 45 

Bmmett,  Robert,  emeutt  of  in 

1803 752 

execution  of  in  1804. ...  752 
expulsion   from   Trinity 

College 750 

personal  reputation  of. .  753 
return  to  Dublin  of. ....  750 

travels  of 750 

wonderful  death  speech 

of 752 

Bmmett,   Thomas   Addis,  of 

the  United  Irishmen . .  686 
England  and  Ireland,  union 

of  the  Crowns  of 841 

England,  civil  war  in 253 

civil  war  ugnin  in 308 

England'!  seven  years'  war..  640 
England's  war  with  America  640 


MM 

English  and  Anglo-Irish  in- 
terest   289 

English  and  Spanish  negoti- 
ations   42S 

English      hostilities       with 

France 751 

English  interest,  decay  of  in 

1376.. 267 

continued  division    and 

decline  of 805 

tide  begins  to  turn  for. .  316 
English  power,  low  ebb  of. .  317 

English  Republic 548 

Enniskillen,  siege  of. 581 

Epochs,  four  great,   Anglo- 
Norman    invasion    in 

1169 746 

Legislative  union  in  1801  746 
Statute  Kilkenny,  Eng- 
lish   Pale,    and    Irish 

enemy,  1887 746 

Union  of  the  Crowns  in 

1541 746 

Era  of  Independence,    first 

period  of. 654 

second  period  of. 663 

third  period  of 670 

termination  of  in  1797. .   677 
Era  of  King  Richard  Bruce.  232 

Era  of  the  Reformation 370 

Erin,  ancient,  state  of  society 

in 5 

Esmonde,  Dr.,  execution  of.  702 
Essex's  campaign  in  1599. . .  481 
Essex,    Lord,  the    "  Under- 
taker,"    401 

Establishment  of  Maynooth 

College 676 

Estrangement  of  Flood  and 

Grattan 651 

Eugenian  race  of  the  South. .       6 
Events  of  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward VI 870 

Philip  and  Mary 376 

Events  of  the  13th  Century..   201 
Excommunication  of  Queen 

Elizabeth 394 

Execution  of  Charles  1 587 

Earl  of  Desmond 313 

Lord  Mapiire 520 

Expedition  ofPrince  Charles 

Edward 625 

Exodus  to  the  North  Ameri- 
can Colonies  iu  1729..  621 


982 


MM 

Expedition  of  Admiral  Con- 

flaus 629 

Commodore  Thnrot....  629 

Express  renunciation,  reso- 
lution of. 657 


F. 


Failure  of  the  groat  Expedi- 
tion from  Brest,  1796.  692 

Falkland,  Viscount,  adminis- 
tration of 476 

FallofGalway 546 

Fall  of  Limerick 545 

Fate  of  the  Leading  United 

Irishmen 726 

Fautjhard,  battle  of 249 

Feargal,  king 86 

Felonj  to  introduce  armed 
Scotchmen  into  Ire- 
land    379 

Fifteenth  Century,  relations 

of  the  Races  in  the...  303 

Final  passage  of  Catholic 
Emancipation  Act, 13th 
April,  1829 802 

Finn,  father  of  Osaian 6 

Finnacta,  death  of 84 

Finnacta,  reigned  twenty 
years  in  the  seventh 
century 80 

Firearms,  first  employment 

of,  in  1489 881 

First  campaign  of  Earl  Rich- 
ard    169 

expedition  of  Richard  II. 

to  Ireland 272 

inhabitants 1 

First  Period  of  Era  of  Inde- 
pendence   654 

first  Story  of  Ireland  before 

it  became  Christian.. .       2 

Pltxgerald.  Lord  Edward,  of 

the  United  Irishmen. .  630 
Margaret,    decision    of, 

character  of 829 

Mr.  Vesey,  address  of   to 
the  Clare  Electors 798 

PSaiaurice,  James,    insur- 

rectior    inder 897 

Sir  James 898 

Hir    James,  defeat    and 
death  of..  ..  406 


Fitz-Ralph,    Archbishop    of 

Armagh 88S 

Fitzstephen,  Rt.  a  prisoner..  178 
Fitzwilliam,  Lord  Deputy. . .  41* 
Fitzwilliam,  Lord,    adminis- 
tration of 675 

Flaherty,  king 86 

Flan,  king 69 

Flight  of  the  Earls 470 

Flood  and  Grattan,  final  dis- 
agreement between. . .  656 

death  of,  in  17&1 . . 662 

decline  of  popularity  . . .  646 
entry  of,  into  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament 662 

estrangement  from  Grat- 

tan,  foundation  of ....  651 
greatest  triumph  of ....  658 

leadership  of 636 

"  Ode  to  Fame"  of 668 

opposed      to     Catholic 

Emancipation 659 

outvoted  on  every  motion  661 
plea  of,  refusal  to  receive 

foreign  troops 644 

professorship  of  the  Irish 
language    in     Trinity 

Colleee 668 

proposed    extension    of 

the  franchise  rejected  660 
remaining  years  of  the 

public  Fife  of 660 

retiremeiit  from  the  Irish 

Parliament 661 

Firbolgs,  or  Belgsu,  the  third 
immigration  into  Ire- 
land    S 

Fontenov,  battle  of 624 

Forbes,  Pension  bill  of 678 

Fore,  battle  of 66 

Foreign  Relations  of  the 
Irish  previous  to  the 
Anglo-Norman  Inva- 
sion    149 

ForgarUh,  king 86 

Formorians,   or  Sea  Kings; 

descendants  of  Ham..  8 
Four  ancient  provinces,  the.  7 
Ftur  great  Epochs  in  Irish 

history 741 

Fox,  death  ol°,  in  September, 

l-io 75T 

General,   replaced    by 
Lord  CutLcurt  . .       . .  781 


IWDEX. 


983 


MM 

fr»no«  and  Holland,  negotia- 
tions with 690 

alliance  of,  with  America  646 

Franchise,  extension  of,  re- 
jected     6fiO 

Freedom  of  Trade,  a  law 650 

Free  Trade,  and  the  Volun- 
teers    647 

resolutions  passed 648 

French  Invasion,  precautions 

against 698 

G. 

Gaelic  poetry  of  the  Seven- 
teenth Century 567 

the    fifth    immigration, 

and  final  Colony 8 

Galilean  Church,  liberties  of 

the  757 

Gal  way,  fall  of 546 

River 1 

General  Assembly  in  1647  ..  535 

meeting  in  1643 515 

meeting  of,  at  Kilkenny, 

in  1642 518 

Geographical  situation  of  Ire- 

land 1 

George  I.,  accession  of. 613 

II ,  accession  of 619 

III.,  accession  of. 636 

III.,  death  of,  in  1820. . .  775 
George  IV.,  mission  of  con- 
ciliation   785 

Geraldine  League 346 

second 896 

sequel  of  the  second ....  407 

Gerald,  Saint,  of  Mayo 86 

Geraldines,    of   Kildare,   as- 
cendency of 318 

Minister,   important  ac- 
tion of 396 

Glamorgan,  Earl  of,  arrest  of  529 

treaty 525 

Glance  at  Military  Tactics.. .  226 

Glentesk,  battle  of 889 

Qlenmalure,  battle  of. 418 

Gruudison,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of 476 

Grattan,  again  returned  for 

Dubfin,  1812 764 

amendment    to    Supply 

Bill,  carried. '.  666 

and  Burke 679 


turn 

Grattan  and  Flood,  final  dis- 

agreement between...  65* 
appearance    of,    in     the 
House  ..............   r42 

Barren  Lands  Bill  of..       678 
Bill  defeated,  1813  ......  769 

death  of,  in  1317  ........  775 

debut    of,    in      Imperial 


detailed  bill  of,  for  Ca- 

tholic Emancipation  .  .  766 
elected  for  Dublin,  1306.  761 
election  of,  for  Wicklow.  741 
enters  the  Imperial  Par- 

liament ..............  755 

equal  rights  to  persons 

of  all  religious  creeds.  683 
five  demands  of  ........   655 

enters  ilie  Irish  House  of 

Commons  ............  645 

hostility  to  French  prin- 

ciples ..............  679 

in  favor  of  Catholic 

emancipation  ........  659 

last  days  of  ............  776 

leadership  of.  ..........   644 

leadership  of,  continua- 

tion of.  ..............   649 

leader  of  the  House  of 

Commons  ............   682 

neglect  of  the  adminis- 

tration ...............  75<J 

re-entry  of,  into  the  Irish 

Parliament  ...........  740 

resolutions  of,  on  tithe 

question,  failure  of  ...  665 
retirement  from  House 

of  Commons  .........  684 

return  of,  to  the  King- 

dom and  public  life...  739 
struck  from  the  Irish 

Privy  Council  Roll.  .  .  730 
thanks  of  the  House 

voted  to  .............  655 

Trade  motion  of  ........  683 

ultimatum  of,  accepted..  655 
Grievances  and  "Graces"...  480 
Growth  of  public  spirit  .....   620 

Grey,  Lord,  contest  with  Earl 

ofKildare  ............  817 

Lord,  administration  of.  414 
Orey,  Lord  Leonard,  admin- 

istration of.  ..........  3*0 

Guns,  great,  first  use  of...,,  831 


984 


r»DKI. 


Half  penny  controversy 617 

Halifax,  Lord,  administration 

of 687 

Harcourt,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of. 639 

Hanlwicke,    Lord,    adminis- 
tration of 764 

Harrington,  Earl  of,  admin- 
istration of 630 

Hearts  of  Steel 843 

Henrietta    Maria,   queen    of 

Charles  1 626 

Henry  II.,  in  Ireland 178 

Henry  II.,  return  to  England  181 
Henry  VIII.,  proclaimed  at 

London  and  Dublin...  860 
Hertford,  Marquis,  adminis- 
tration of 637 

Hiberno-Norman  town-life. .  228 
Hiberno-Scotcb  alliance....  305 
Hippesley,  Sir  John  C.,  liber- 
ties   of    the    Qallican 

Church 757 

Hoche,   Commander  of   the 

French  Expedition...  691 

death  of,  in  1797 694 

Holy  See,  political  position  of  772 
Hospitality  of  the  old  Irish.  828 
Hostages,  a  form  of  ratifying 

a  treaty 89 

Hugh  II.,  reign  of 38 

Hugh,  king  or  Ireland,  death 

of,  in  595 28 

Hugh  III.,  succession  of. ...  29 
Hugh  IV.,  succession  of,  in 

599 29 

Hugh  V.,  king 86 

Hugh  VI.,  king 49 

Hugh  VII.,  king 68 

Hugh  de  Lacy,  assassination 

of 196 

Hugh  of  the  Fetters 419 

Uy'-Ni:il  race  of  the  north...      I 


I. 


Impeachment  of  Lord  Straf- 

ford 488 

Imperial  Standard,  new,  run 
up  ru  Dublin  Castle, 
1B01 ,  ..  745 


Independence,  era   of,  first 

period  of 654 

second  period  of. 668 

third  period  of 670 

termination  of  in  1797..  677 
Independence  of  1641  affirm- 
ed in  1780 651 

Iniquitous     deprivation     of 

equal  civil  rights 620 

Insurrection  of  Silken  Tho- 
mas  848 

of  1641 490 

of  1798 696 

under  Fitzmaurice 897 

Invasion  of  Scotland  by  the 

Young  Pretender 628 

Invernabark,  battle  of 63 

lona,  growth  of,  under  Co- 

Tumbkill 84 

islet  of 24 

Ireland  and  Scotland,  rela- 
tions of 288 

Ireland,  as  a  nation,  extin- 
guished  744 

under  the  Protectorate. .  548 

rish  abroad 493 

abroad,  in  the  reign  of 

George  III 788 

abroad,  in  O'Connell's 
final  and  successful 
struggle  for  Catholic 

Emancipation 788 

Administration,  reform  of  683 
and  Anglo-Irish  Society, 
state    of    during    the 
14th  and  15th  centu- 
ries   887 

beef  imported  into  Eng- 
land a  nuisance 558 

Chiefs,  negotiations  of 
with  James  V.  of  Scot- 
land   859 

Constabulary,  1812 76« 

exodus    to  'the    North 

American  Colonies...  631 
immigration,  first,  into 

Scotland  in  258 2t 

in  America,  fortunes  of.  784 
opinion  of  Ed  ward  Bruce  853 
Parliament,  last  session 

of. 744 

policy  of  Henry  VIII. 
during  time  of  Cardi- 
nal Wolsev 841 


IBDM. 


985 


trkk    Prelates   o(    reign    of 

George  III 678 

reform  movement 659 

Saints,  lives  of  the 584 

Scriptures,  first  version 

of 246 

soldiers  abroad 462 

soldiers  abroad  during 
the  reign  of  William 

and  Anne 610 

Whigs,  Lord  Moiria  and 
Mr.  Ponsouby,  leaders 
of. 772 

J. 

Jacobites  disheartened 619 

Jacobite  movement 624 

risings,  anticipations  of.  613 
James  I.,  accession  of,  until 

death  of  Cromwell...  465 

James  II.,  abdication  of....  573 

accession  of. 568 

in  Ireland 573 

James  V.,  death  of 884 

"  Defender  of  the  Faith"  853 
of  Scotland,  negotiations 

of  Irish  Chiefs  with. .  353 
Judicial  and  legislative  inde- 
pendence established.  649 


K. 

Keating,  Jeffrey 563 

Kenmare,  Lord,  death  of,  13- 

12 771 

Kenneth,  King 36 

Keogh,    John,      leader    of, 

Catholics 759 

stgacious  declarations  of  799 
Kenfala,  reigned  four  years 

in  the  seventh  century    80 

Kildare,  Eurl  of,  death  of.       850 

Gerald,  3th  Earl  of.. . .       314 

James,  20th  Earl  of. . .       633 

ninth  and  last  Earl  of.       345 

Thomas,  7th  Earl  of . .       813 

Kilkenny,  city  of,  capital  of 

the  Confederacy 513 

statute  of 263 

Killicraukie,  battle  of 532 

Kilmainham,  battle  of 293 

Killucan,  battle  of 294 


MM 
Kf  ngs  of  the  eighth  century    85 

ninth  century 49 

seventh  century 29 

tenth  century 76 

Kinsale,  abandonment  of. . ..  589 

battle  of 449 

landing  of  James  II.  at..  574 

Knighthoods  conferred 861 

Knights  of  St.  John 257 

Knights  of  St.  Patrick,  order 

of 659 

Knockdoe,  battle  of 826 

L. 

Lancastenans  and  Yorkists.  289 

Last  session  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liament    740 

Last  struggle  of  the  Stuarts.  627 

Latin  helps  to  early  history.       4 

Latter  days  of  the  Northmen 

in  Ireland 107 

Leadership  of  Grattan 644 

continuation  of. 649 

Leadership  of  O'Connell,  1812  785 
to  1821 770 

Legislation  of  1798,  fatal  to 
to  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment  780 

Legislative  and  judicial  in- 
dependence establish- 
ed   649 

Legislative  independence  es- 
tablished   656 

Legislative   union   of   Great 

Britain  and  Ireland...   611 

Legislature,  ancient,  of  the 
Kingdom, pro  posed  ex- 
tinction of 721 

Leighlin,  chief  seat  of  power 

for  Leinster 7 

Leinster,  ancient 7 

Lewines,  Edward  John,  with 

the  Dutch  expedition.  698 

LiaFail,  the 8 

Liffey,  battle  on  the,  three 

days,       68 

Limerick,  capitulation  of. ...  596 

fall  of 545 

siege  of 587 

Lionel,  duke  of  Clarence,  lord 

lieutenant 281 

Literature    of   the    Catholic 

agitation 794 


980 


INDM. 


MM 
( jrerpool,  I  crd,  adminietra- 

tionof 764 

death  of.  1828 798 

Lives  of  the  Irish  Saints....  564 

Lucas,  Dr.,  death  of 637 

resolutions  of 637 

Lord  and  tenant,  new  rela- 
tions of 863 

Loi'igsech,  succ*"miou  of,  in 

693 30 

Lough  Corrib 1 

M. 

Mageunis,  Arthur,  Bishop  of 

Dromore 872 

Magna  Gharta  of  Irish  Pro- 
testantism    554 

Maguire,  Lord,  execution  of    520 

Jlahon,  King  of  Cashel,  mur- 
der of? 89 

Malachy,  I.,  King 65 

II.,  King 8« 

Malcolm  of  Scotland 101 

Malone,  Anthony,  leader  of 

the  Patriot  party 681 

Malone,  death  of. 648 

Mant,  Bishop 872 

March,  Earl  of,  administra- 
tion of. 279 

lieutenancy  and  death  of  279 

Marlborougli, assault  of,  upon 

Cork 589 

first  mention  of 589 

leadership     of,     under 

Queen  Anne 605 

return  of  to  England....  589 

Mary,  Queen,  legul  difficulty 
iu  title  to  Queen  of  Ire- 
land   877 

Mass,   first  celebrated  in   a 

burn 12 

Maynooth  College,  establish- 
ment of 676 

McNamnra,  Major,  declin- 
ation of 799 

McNevin,  of  the  United  Irish- 
men   686 

Meath,  ancient 6 

Mellifont,  articles  of 467 

Memorial  of  the  English  Ca- 
tholics at  Rome 528 

Mental  resources  of  an  Anglo- 
Irish  nobleman. 882 


Midland    counties,  confisca- 
tion of. 47T 

Milesian  Kings,  the  first ....       8 

Milesians 8 

Militia  Bill  of  1778 647 

Militia,  increase  of,  1793...     «73 

Military  events,  1647 f>36 

subjugation  of  Ireland. .  551 
McMurrogh,    Art,    Lord  of 

Lemster 2(',S 

Moira,  battle  of,  in  687 .....     80 

Mouabiaher,  battle  of. 1)26 

Moore,  inimitable  satire  of.. .  7(»6 
Thomas,  first  mention  of  675 
Mountgarret,  Lord,  arrest  of.  560 
Mountjoy,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of 4S8 

Moynitb,  plain  of,  battle  on.    68 
Muuroe,  leader  of  the  Scot- 
tish forces 519 

Munster,  ancient 7 

conquest  of 451 

plantation  of. 411 

Murkertach,  "  Hector  of  the 

West." 77 

of  Aileach 129 

Music  in  the  early  Church.. .     44 
Mutiny    Bill,  discussion  on 

the  repeal  of 661 

N. 

Napoleon,  power  of,  increas- 
ing   754 

Napper  Tandy,  of  the  United 

Irishmen 687 

National  Bank 61T 

National,  or  old  Irish  policy 

losing  ground 588 

Native,  naturalized  and  Eng- 
lish interest 258 

Native  Princes,  acts  of 298 

Native    protection,    Anglo- 

Irish  towns  under.   ..  301 

Navigation  Act,  unjust 558 

No-Popery  cry  in  1827 795 

Necromancers  and  Soothsay- 
ers  *. .      S 

Negotiations,    English     and 

Spanish 428 

with  France  and  Holland  690 
with  Spain,  O'NltH'ft....  IM 
Neilson,     Samuel      of      iV 

United  Irishmen.  ...  669 


nroxx. 


987 


BAM 

Vtmedh,  the  .eader  of  the 
second  immigration 

into  Ireland 2 

the,  leaders  of  the  fourth 

immigration 8 

Newcastle,  Earl  of,  retire- 
ment of. 520 

New  Catholic  association 791 

"few  Nuncio — Riuuccini ....  526 
New  principle  of  primogeni- 
ture   878 

New  relations  of  lord  and 

tenant 363 

Newry,  battle  of. 78 

New   Testament    in    Gaelic, 

first  edition  of 585 

Hial  II.,  king 88 

tfial  III.,  king 68 

NiallV.,  king 76 

Non-intercourse  resolved  on 

in  England 260 

Norman  period,  retrospect  of 

the 220 

state  of  society  and  learn. 

ing 228 

Normans  and  Irish,  arms,  ar- 
mor and  tactics  of 168 

Normans,  first  expedition  of, 

into  Ireland 163 

in  Connaught 202 

in  Ireland 156 

in  M  fiith  and  Ulster. ...  218 
in  Minister  and  Leinster  207 
North  and  South,  contest  be- 
tween   120 

Northern  Irish  enter  into  alli- 
ance with  King  Rob- 
ert Bruce 238 

Northmen  in  Ireland,  latter 
days  of 107 

0. 

Oak  Boys 642 

O'Brien, Murrogh, adhesion  of  861 
O'Brien,  Thaddens,  attempt 
of,  to  restore  the  mon- 
archy   802 

O'Brien,  Thorlogh,  singular 

incident  to 119 

O' Byrne,  Feagh  MacHugh..  422 
O'Curroll,     Afu'ijruret,     piety 

and  hospitality  of. ....  329 
,  family  of S28 


MM 

O'Oonnell,  attack  of  on  Prince 

Regent 771 

criminal  information  fHed 

against,  1824 791 

Daniel,  first  mention  of.  675 

elected  for  Clare 301 

eloquent  speech  on   the 

absence  of  Mr.  Keogh.  759 
energetic    measures    to 

elect  for  Clare 800 

extraordinary  patience  of  785 
final     triumph     of,    in 

emancipation 802 

friendship  of  Shiel  for. .  771 

leadership  of,  1813 770 

leadership  of,  1821 785 

leadership  of  the  Catho- 
lics   764 

letter  of  Dr.  McNevin  to  797 
moves  the  formation  of 
the    Catholic   associa- 
tion  , 788 

nomination  for  Clare. . .  799 
political  writings  of. . . .  785 
popularity     of,    injured  792 
presentation   of,   at    the 
bar  of  the  House  of 

Commons 808 

proposition      regarding 

Convention  Act 768 

reelection  for  Clare,  1829  808 
refuses  to  take  oath  in 

House  of  Commons. .  803 
return  to  Dublin    after 

Clare  election 801 

the  "  man  of  the  people"  764 
O'Connell's  vituperation    of 

the  Prince  Regent. . . .  772 
O'Conor,    Arthur,  arrest  of  700 

in  France 788 

of  the  United  Irishmen . .  686 
rise  of  the  family  of. ...  120 
O'Conor,     Roderick,    acces- 
sion of 131 

last  years  of. ...   188 

O'Conor,  Thorlogh  More 128 

O'Donnell,  death  of,  in  Spain  450 
Hugh    Roe,    escape   of, 
from  Dublin  Castle...  429 

Manus,  adhesion  of 381 

of  Spain 598 

O'Farrell,  expedition  of 629 

O'Haclon,   Count  Redmond, 

assassination  of. 663 


988 


IHDKX. 


P1B1 

Oligarchy  usual  cry  of. .  .  682 
Oliver  Crcjfiwell,  death  of..  552 

O'Niell,  Art,  death  of 420 

O'Nioll,  Con,  adhesion  of 361 

O'Niell,  Hugh,  early  career  of  412 

in  Leitrim 516 

O'Niell,    John,    career    and 

death  of 890 

the  proud 876 

military  and  political  po- 
sition of 537 

O'Niell's    negotiations  with 

Spain 435 

O'Niell,  Owen,  death  of 541 

Sir  Phelim 547 

submission  of 456 

O'Moore,  Rory,  leader  of  the 

insurrection  of  1641..  493 
Operations    in     Ulster    and 

Munster 441 

Orangemen,  arrest  of. 788 

Orange,    Prince    of,    active 

agents  of 572 

William  Henry.Prince  of  571 
Oratory,  state  of,  during  the 

(Georgian  era 781 

Ormond,  Duke  of,  arrival  in 

1708 605 

Earl  of 806 

Earl  of,  death  of 562 

Earl  of,  Lord-Lieutenant  656 
Earl  of,  viceroy  in  1644.  520 
Onnond's    military    career, 

close  of 638 

O'Rielly.  Alexander,  in  Spain  784 

Orrery,  Earl  of 558 

O'Ruarc,    Tiernan,    lord    of 

Breffin 182 

O'Sullivan,  Prince    Charles' 

General 625 

Ortsian,  first  mention  of. ....  6 
Oasianic  outbreak  of  1760...  780 
Ora,Battleof 119 

P. 

Pagans,  earliest  emigrants  to 

Argyle 24 

Parliament  of  1/>60 882 

of  1569 894 

of  1585 412 

of  1G1.V15 470 

of  1634....    484 

Of  103»-'tl 487 


MMi 

Parliament  of  1661 654 

of  1689 57« 

of  1692 600 

of  1695 601 

of  1715 615 

of  1769 689 

of  1775 644 

of  1775,  dissolu  non  of . .  645 

of  1781 653 

of  1782 655 

of  1788 660 

of  1785 663 

of  1789,  dissolution  of. .  663 

of  1790 689 

of  1796 683 

of  1798, — penalties  and 

proscription 780 

of   1799 -great  interest 

and  excitement. 782 

of  1800 740 

Imperial,  of  1803-'4 766 

of  1818 766 

0/1828 798 

of  Kilkenny 268 

Parliamentary  reform,  last  ef- 
fort for 684 

Parties  within  "the  Pale"..  289 
Partholan,  the  double  parri- 
cide, leader  of  the  first 
immigration  into  Ire- 
land        S 

Patrick,  attempts  to   assas- 
sinate      15 

birth  of 11 

confronts     the      Pagan 

princes 14 

first  Christian  teacher..     11 
mission  commenced  482    11 

triumphs  of 16 

death  of,  in  498 17 

Patriot  party 621 

Peel,  Mr..  Secretaryship  of . .  7M 
Sir  Robert,  Chief  Secre- 
tary for  Ireland,  181>.  765 

Peep  o*  Day  Boys 84* 

Peerage,  a  new  Anglo-Irish.  861 

Penal  code  of  race. 261 

Penal  code,  reign  of  in  Ire- 
land    60S 

Laws 471 

against  the  Catholics . . .  601 
Perceval,  assassination  of. . .  7tf4 
Pen  )tt,  Sir  John,  adminis- 
tration of 4Ii 


PAOI 

Philip  and  Mary,  events  of 

\he  reigu  of 376 

Pitt  administration,  defeat  of, 
on  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion   747 

death    of,   in    February, 

1806 757 

Mr.,  returned  to  pov\cr, 

1804 755 

return  to  office  in  1804..  749 
Piratical    pursuits    of     the 

Danes 58 

Plain  of  Moynith,  battle  on. .     63 
Plan   of  the   Confederates — 

Insurrection  of,  1641..  494 

Plantation  of  Muns4er 411 

Plunkett,  Archbishop,  exe- 
cution of. 560 

elected  for  Trinity  Col- 
lege  764 

eloquent  exclamation  of  734 
enters  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament    755 

eulogy  of  Grattan 756 

Irish  Attorney  General.    789 
Policy  of  non-intercourse  re- 
solved on  in  England.  260 

Wolsey,  instances  of 342 

Political  incidents  during  the 

reign  of  William 603 

position  of  the  Holy  See.  772 
Ponsouby,  George,  rejection 
of.   annual   motion  for 
Parliamentary  reform, 

1794 678 

last  effort  for  Parliament- 
ary reform 684 

refusal  of,  to  present  ad- 
dress to  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant    639 

remark  of,  on  Catholic 
Emancipation  I3ill  of 

1813 769 

reply  of,  to  Castlereagh.  741 

Pi-pish  piOt,  641 

Portland,  Duke  of,  adminis 

tration  of 654 

Portugal,  Irish  troops  re^js 

ed  to  be  raised  for 638 

Poyning's    Act,    repeal    of, 

agitated <50 

pariiamuut o23 

Press,  the,  movement  of,  in 

favor  of  free  trade... . .  647 


MM 

Pretender,  the  young,  inva- 
sion of  Scotland 321 

Primogeniture,     new    prin- 
ciple of 878 

Prince  John,   arrival   of,  in 

Ireland ..  19« 

Regent,  O'Connell's  at- 
tack on .   771 

promises  and  pledges  of 
in  favor  of  Catholics . .  771 

unpopularity  of 775 

Proceedings  of  Richard  II. .  276 
Protectorate,   Ireland  under 

the 518 

Protector,  the,  policy  of,  to- 
wards Ireland 549 

Protestant  massacre,  rumor 

of 573 

deputation  to  Charles  I..  520 
reformation,  arrest  of....  379 
attempt  to  introduce....  355 
opposition  of  the  clergy.  356 

Parliament  of  1541 359 

Proctors  excluded 856 

restored  under  Elizabeth  382 
state  of  the  country  ....  858 
Provinces,  the  four  ancient..      7 
Provisions,    export   of,    em- 
bargo on 645 

Public  Life  of  Flood,  remain- 
ing years  of 660 

Q. 

Quern,  or  ancient  flour  mill..      8 
Quigley,  Father  James,  ar- 
rest of 700 


Race,  penal  code  of. 268 

Rathfarnham,  battle  of 7ft 

battle  at 70S 

Rat hn i i nes,  battle  of. 588 

Rathmore,  battles  at,  in  680 

and  684 81 

Raymond  the  Fat 175 

Rebellion   of  1798— Arklow, 

repulse  of. 714 

of  1798— Bagnal  Harvey, 

surrender  of. 71S 

Castlebar,  action  at 728 

Connaught,   bold  rising 
in..,    ....     7* 


690 


Rebellion  of  1798,  Corn wallis, 

arrival  of 717 

Cruelties  in  the  Wexford 

insurrection 717 

executions  for  treason  in 

Wexford 707 

final  attack  on  Vinegar 

Hill 715 

first  battle  of  the 702 

French  fleet,  second  dis- 
persion of. 725 

French   frigates,  arrival 

of  at  KillallaBay 722 

fugitives  from  Orange 
oppression  arrive  in 

Connaught 722 

Harvey,  Mr.  Baguall....  709 

Kildare,  rising  in 719 

Kilkenny,  march  upon..  719 
Leinster       insurrection 

trodden  out 720 

March  upon  Gorey 710 

Meath,  marching  on. ...  719 
Munster,  no  notable  at- 
tempt at  insurrection..  721 
Napper  Tandy  and  Gen- 

eral  Reay 724 

New  Ross,  repulse  at. . .  711 
Newtownbarry,      move- 
ment against. 711 

Parallel  of  the  crimes 
committed  on  both 

sides 717 

Provisional  Government 
established  at  Castle- 
bar 728 

Retreat  of  Humbert 724 

Surrender  of  Humbert  at 

Balliuamuck. 724 

Tone,  arrest  of 726 

Tone,  death  of. 728 

Ulster,  rising  iu 720 

Vinegar  Hill,  encamp- 
ment  710 

Wcxford  insurrection.. .  706 

Wicklow,  rising  in 718 

Kecall  of  Lord  Fttzwilliam. .  683 
Recall  of  Lord  Westmoreland 

iu  17U4 680 

Red  Earl,  the,  rise  of. 282 

Reformation,  era  of  the 870 

Bi*r>nn  mov. -merit 659 

Regency  question,  1788 665 

Reign  of  Charles  11 658 


PAM 

Reign  of  King  WUliam....  597 

Relations  of  Ireland  and  Soot- 
land 233 

Relations  of  the  Races  in  the 

Fifteenth  century 808 

Relaxation    of    Commercial 

restrictions 645 

Religion  and  learning  among 
the  Irish  previous  to 
the  Anglo-Norman  in- 
vasion    188 

Religion  and  learning  during 
14th  and  15th  centu- 
ries   83S 

Religious  subjugation  of  Ire- 
land   551 

Rescript  of  1814,  opposition 

to 778 

Resolutions  limiting  parlia- 
ment to  seven  years. .  637 

Restoration  of  Charles  II. ...  558 

Results  of  the  first  preach- 
ing of  Christianity. . .  16 

Retrospect,  1541—1547 868 

Retrospect  of  the   Norman 
period 220 

Retrospect  of  the  state  of  Re- 
ligion and  Learning 
during  the  reign  of 
George  III 777 

Revenue  questions  between 

England  and  Ireland..  668 

Revolt  of  American  Colonies.  644 

Revolutionary  war 678 

close  of 597 

Richard  II.  of  England,  first 
expedition  of,  to  Ire- 
land.   278 

proceedings  of 276 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  adminis- 
tration of 760 

Righ  (king),  Ard-righ,  (High 
King) 5 

Rinuccini,  the  new  Nuncio. .  624 

Rise  of  the  Family  of  O'Con- 

or 124 

Rising  in  Connaught 244 

Rivalry  of  Brian   and   Mai 

achy,  effects  of 101 

Robert  Brnae  in  Ireland. . . .   247 

Roderick  O'Conor 181 

Rowan,  II  uiiiltoii,  ii:i[iti<jn- 

HH'Ilt  of 687 

Roydaiuua,  or  chief  successor      6 


UTDKS. 


591 


RAM 

Bnpert,  Prince 688 

Hussell,  of  the  United  Irish- 
men  686 

Sir  William,  administra- 
tion of 421 

Thomas,  execution  of  in 
1804...  .  752 


Sacred  Scriptures,  first  ver- 
sion in  Irish...., 462 

Saiat  Bridget 57 

Saint  Gerald,  of  Mayo 6 

Saints,  eminent  Irish 45 

Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lncan ....  591 
Scotland,  Highlands,  conver- 
sion or 23 

Scoti,  from  Scota  mother  of 

Milesius 8 

School  and  Scholars  of  the 
three    first    Christian 

Centuries 40 

School  of  Lismore,  celebrated    30 
Secession,  threatened,  of  Mr. 

Grattan 652 

Second    Campaign    of    Ear! 

Richard 175 

campaign  Robert  Bruce  242 
expedition    of   Richard 
against    Art    McMur- 

rogh 283 

"  Geraldine  League  "...  896 
period  of  Era  of  Indepen- 
dence   663 

reformation  in  1827.    ..  795 
story  of  Ireland  before  it 

became  Christian ....       2 
Secret  organization  of  United 

Irishmen,  1794 688 

societies,  opposition  to. .  648 

Septennial  Bill 637 

Shanasagh,  reigned  six  years 

in  the  seventh  Century    30 
Bhiol,    educated  at    Stoney- 

hurst 770 

reply   of    to   O'Connell, 

1821 785 

Richard  Lalor,  eloquence  770 
Sidney,  Sir  Henry,  adminis- 
tration of. ." 691 

Sir  llenry,  deputyship. .  391 

Sir    Henry,  lord-deputy  381 

Bi*ge  of  Athtone 686 


MM 

Siege  of  Derry 680 

ofDublin U9 

of  Enniskillen 581 

of  Limerick 587 

Silken  Thomas,  insurrection  34  1 
Simnel  and  Warbrck,  York- 
ist pretenders SiO 

Slane,  battle  of 81 

Slaughter  at  Droghedd 540 

Sligo,  castle  and  town  sacke-1  241 
Social  condition  of  the  Irish 
previous  to  the  Anglo- 
Norman   Invasion 141 

Spaniards,  landing  of,  in  the 

South 445 

Spanish  Armada 416 

Stage,  the,  during  the  Georg- 
ian Era 781 

State  of  the  Country  between 

1760  and  1776 610 

Irish  and  Anglo-Irish 
the  14th  and  loth  cen- 
turies   327 

Statute  of  Kilkenny,  and 
some  of  its  conse- 
quences    263 

State  of  Religion  and  Learn- 
ing during  14th  and 

15th  centuries. 333 

religion  and  learning 
during  the  reign  of 

Elizabeth 457 

religion  and  learning  in 

the  17th  century 563 

religion  and  learning 
during  the  :eign  of 

George  III 777 

society  and  learning  dur- 
ing the  Norman  Period  227 
St.  L«ger,  Sir  Anthony,  lord- 
deputy 854 

Stone,  Dr.  George,  Primate 

of  Ireland 8M 

Stone  of  destiny S 

St.  Patrick,  Knights  of.   ...  669 
Stratford,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of 484 

impeachment  of  and  exe- 
cution    487 

lord-deputy 484 

Subdivision    of   Tribes    and 

Territories 29fl 

Succession  disputed  in  Scot- 
laud...  ..  Ml 


IXDJU. 


MM 

Unlchoid,  battle  of 88 

Superstitious     incident     at 

Derry,  13th  April,  182?  804 
Surrey  of  "the  whole  King- 

"dom 549 

Sussex,  Lord  Deputy 881 

Swamps  and  marshes,  ex- 
tent of. 2 

iwift,  antipathies  to  the  cler- 

gr 621 

leadership 817 

peculiarities  of. 621 

T. 

Talbot,  archbishop  of  Dub- 
lin, arrest  of 559 

Sir  John,  administration 

of 294 

Tandy,  Napper,  of  the  United 

Irishmen 687 

Tara,  battle  near 84 

chief  seat  of  power 7 

Tan  1st,  or  successor 5 

Taxation,   resistance  of,   by 

Columbkill 27 

Third  era  of  Independence. .  670 
Thirteenth    century,   events 

of  the 201 

no  conquest  of  the  coun- 
try in  the 220 

Thirty  articles,  the,  publica- 
tion of. 683 

Thomond,  Prince  of,  attempt 
to  restore  'the  Monar- 
chy   803 

Three  davs'     battle  on  the 

Liffey 66 

Thurles,  ba'ttle  of. 184 

Tithe  question,  1788 695 

Tone  and  Lewines,  third  ex- 
pedition of,  not  con- 
summated   695 

Tone,  Theobold  Wulfe,  arri- 
val of,  at  Havre 690 

death  of,  in  1798 726 

new  negotiations  of. ...    698 
sailing  of  the  great  ex- 
pedition from  Brest..  691 
rows  and  projects  of. ...  689 

Totness,  Earl  of 441 

Touch  ix. t,  says  Kildare  ....  684 
f  ownnend,  Lord,  administra- 
tion of 688 


Trade     questions     between 
England  and  Ireland, 

1735 668 

Traditions  of  Ireland 8 

Treachery  of  Capt.  Jobn  W. 

Armstrong 701 

Treaty  of  Limerick 596 

Treaty  of  1649 587 

Tribes  and  Territories,  sub- 
division of 298 

Tuatha,  d»  Danant. 8 

Turgesius,  death  of C4 

Tyrconnell,  Earl  of,  adminis- 
tration of 568 

landing  with  a  French 

fleet 591 

Tyrone,  Earl  of,  at  Dublin...  423 
Earl  of,  early  career  of..  418 
John,  Earl  of,  death  of..  494 

U. 

Ulster,  ancient T 

Ulster  and  Leinster,    "  the 

undertakers  "  in 400 

Ulster  and  Munster,  opera- 
tions in 441 

Ulster  confederacy  formed. .  418 

Ulster,  confiscation  of. 478 

earldom  of,  extinction  of  251 
Undertakers,  the,  in  Ulster 

and  Leinster 400 

Uniformity,  act  ef 888 

Union,  an  era  of  honor  and 
advancement  to  some 

Irish  families 749 

final  passage  of  resolu- 
tions of 748 

history  after  the 747 

in    the  English    Parlia- 

liament 785 

Legislative,     of     Great 

Britain  and  Ireland..   618 
negotiations   carried  on 

in  favor  of 781 

of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land   741 

of  the  crowns  of  Eng- 
land and  Ireland 841 

resolutions  passed  in  the 
British  Parliament. . .  741 

speeches  against 788 

United  Irishmen,   atrocities 

perpetrated  upon. ....  CM 


VVii 


rum 
.'*Bit«4  Irishmen  baffled  and 

dispersed 726 

deprivation  of  the  ser- 
vices of  Wolfe  Tone, 
1795 688 

fate  of  the  leading 726 

Fitzgerald  chosen  com- 
mander in  chief 690 

insurrectionary  move- 
ment of,  in  1798 696 

secret  organization  of, 
in  1194 688 

the 684 

three  great  expeditions 
fitted  out  by  France 
and  Holland  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  690 

vast  expansion  of.   ....  689 

Universal  Deluge 2 

Uiquebagh,  first  mention  of 

its  use 881 

V. 

Feto,    approbation    of,    by 

Quarrantotti 772 

controversy  in  1818 770 

Tolunteer  convention  of  1788  660 

convention  of  the. 658 

of!778 647 

the,  and  Free  Trade....  647 

W 

War  of  succession 114 

|f«Ue«ley,  Colonel,  teller  on 

the  Convention  Act...  878 


um 

Wellesley,  Marquis,  adtniau- 

tration  of 78t 

Sir  Arthur,  impartiality 

of. 701 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  first 

mention  of. 678 

Westmoreland,  Earl  of,  ad 

ministration  of. 868 

Lord,  recall  of,  in  1794.  880 
Wexford  Insurrection,  1798.  705 
Whig  club,  creation  of,  1789  667 
Whiskey  (usquebagh),  first 

mention  of  its  use ....  R81 

Whiteboys 842 

Whit  worth,  Lord,  admini» 

tration  of 774 

William  and  Mary  proclaim 

ed  king  and  queen ....  574 
losses  before  Limerick 

and  Athlone 589 

Winter  of  1690 '91 688 

Witchcraft,  charges  o£M ....  880 

Wolsey,  Cardinal 143 

Women,  high  estimation  o£.  128 
Wooded  state  of  the  country  S 

Y. 

Yellow  Ford,  battle  of tit 

consequences     of     the 

battle  o£ 180 

plague  in  664 81 

York,  Duke  of,  death  of  ....   W 
Duke  of,  memorable  de- 
claration of in 

Yorkist  pretenders,  SUBMT 

audWarbock |« 


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